'Extremely generous': Viral social media post gets Winnipeg man free wings for a year

McGregor posted the photo to the Smitty's Facebook page in an effort to find out who Prociuk was, and to reward him for his loyalty. (Source: Facebook)

Winnipegger Howie Prociuk was on a father/son trip south of the border to see the Toronto Blue Jays take on the Minnesota Twins in Minneapolis last month, when a funny thought occurred to him.

"We're at the hotel in Minneapolis on Friday before the game and I go to my son 'Let's do something crazy on our sign that will maybe get us on (television)," said Prociuk.

He wrote, "My wife thinks I'm watching the game at Smitty's in Winnipeg … let's go Jays!" in thick black marker on a piece of white poster board, and the two headed off to the game.

Prociuk was successful in getting his sign televised Friday night. Back in Winnipeg, Smitty's marketing director Jessica McGregor was going about her evening when she was sent a photo of Prociuk and his sign.

"Our owners got a text message from one of their friends who happened to be watching the Jays game saying 'did you see this?'" said McGregor.

She posted the photo to the Smitty's Facebook page in an effort to find out who Prociuk was, and to reward him for his loyalty.

"I immediately took it to social media, and from there is kind of just spiraled …we kind of exploded overnight in terms of how viral we went in Winnipeg, which was very exciting for us," McGregor said.

She said Prociuk had no idea it was happening because he's not on social media.

"He said he didn’t find out about it until he crossed the border and his phone blew up with people trying to get a hold of him so we could get a hold of him," said McGregor.

"My phone, it was like sitting next to R2-D2, it went bonkers. People I haven’t heard from in years contacting me," Prociuk said.

In thanks for the cross-border shout-out, Smitty's gave Prociuk free wings for a year from any location in Winnipeg, along with some promotional gifts from local breweries.

"Smitty's was extremely generous and gave me a little bit of swag for my wife and myself, and then they gave me a coupon for chicken wings for a year," Prociuk said.

"We'll definitely be enjoying the wings!"