Colorado Springs’ five Chick-fil-A restaurants will likely all get pats on the back from the local religious community Wednesday for coming out against gay marriage. That day has been dubbed a “National Appreciation Day” for the company, and the cause has spread quickly through conservative circles from coast to coast.

“I think they’re going to see a noticeable uptick in their business on Wednesday,” said Tom Minnery, executive director of the religious activist group CitizenLink, the political wing of Focus on the Family.

“I think a lot of people are grateful that they support the institution of marriage,” Minnery said.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee started the movement to rally support for the food chain.

Chick-fil-A came under fire two weeks ago after the company’s president, Dan Cathy, said that he and the company oppose gay marriage.

“The goal is simple: Let’s affirm a business that operates on Christian principles,” Huckabee wrote on his Facebook page.

Huckabee asked that backers of Chick-fil-A simply stop in to one of the restaurants and thank employees, or tweet their support, or post it on Face-book.

Though several local religious groups declined to comment, and said they wanted to stay out of politics (including The Navigators), a number of others said they would be delighted to demonstrate their support for the company.

“Somebody’s got to stand up for traditional marriage,” said self-described Christian missionary Bob Kirkeeide, of Colorado Springs. “I’ll eat chicken that day.”

Doug Anderson, the manager of a Chick-fil-A in northern Colorado Springs, said Wednesday will be just the latest in a tidal wave of support from the community. Though the chain’s opposition to gay marriage drew fire from officials in Boston and Chicago, Anderson said his restaurant has gotten an “overwhelming” number of phone calls from happy customers.

“We’ve had dozens of phone calls from people saying they support us and they’ll continue to support us. It’s been really interesting,” said Anderson.

“It’s kind of ironic, because we’ve had a lot of guest appreciation days, so it’s kind of nice that we’d get a day of appreciation for ourselves,” he said.

There’s also been a national reaction in the other direction — many in the LGBT community have been advertising a “National Same Sex Kissing Day” at Chick-fil-A, scheduled for 8 p.m. Friday.

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This Thursday, July 19, 2012 photo shows a Chick-fil-A fast food restaurant in Atlanta. Gay rights advocates were surprised Thursday that the president of the Atlanta-based chain has taken a public position against same-sex marriage. Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy said this week that his privately owned company is “guilty as charged” in support of what he called the biblical definition of the family unit. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart) Photo by