1-Color
June 5, 2014 Douglas County, Colorado | Volume 13, Issue 20 A publication of
lonetreevoice.net
Rally set to fight teenage suicide
A turn for the better
Dark times will pass, event speaker says By Jane Reuter
jreuter @coloradocommunitymedia.com
Valor Christian graduate Lucas Challenger gets his tassel turned after receiving his diploma May 30 at Cherry Hills Community Church. More on page 2. Photo by Ryan Boldrey
Lone Tree gets a LYFE New restaurant offers healthy options for variety of diets By Jane Reuter
jreuter@coloradocommunitymedia.com The people behind Lone Tree’s newest restaurant, LYFE Kitchen, believe their business is about more than food. It’s about helping the country turn its eating habits down a healthier path. “We believe we’re part of a movement,” said the company’s chief brand and communications officer, Mike Donahue, who spoke at the restaurant’s May 28 soft opening. “We believe we’re a campaign without an election date. We believe we’re out there to make a difference.” LYFE, which opens officially on June 6 in Park Meadows shopping center, raises the concept of healthy eating to new levels. Its name, an acronym for Love Your Food Every Day, sums up its aspirations. Each entrée contains 600 calories or less and includes 1,000 milligrams or less of sodium, with an emphasis on locally sourced food. It offers entrees for those on vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free diets. Meat lovers need not despair: Fish, chicken, sausage and even bison also are well-represented the menu. Launched in 2011 by Mike Roberts — the former McDonald’s executive who helped introduce apples to Happy Meals — LYFE operates on the concept that food can taste great, and be healthy and affordable. Its website lists six operating restaurants, including Lone Tree’s, but it’s on a fast growth track. A Boulder restaurant will open in the fall, and company plans call for a total of 250 sites in the next few years. It’s got the backing of some big names, including Oprah Winfrey’s former personal chef Art Smith, who acts as executive chef. Lone Tree LYFE owners DJ and Rachel Mitchell share the LYFE company roots; the two previously owned McDonald’s restaurants in Alamosa, Colorado Springs and Lone
Diners sample food at the new LYFE restaurant at Park Meadows shopping center during the May 28 grand opening. Photo by Jane Reuter Tree. Rachel admits she was hesitant when an enthusiastic DJ first told her about the LYFE concept. She had never tasted quinoa until she sampled LYFE’s quinoa crunch wrap. “It’s intimidating, I find, to cook with quinoa and kale, to substitute (other ingredients) for butter and it still tastes good,” she said. “They found the secret.” Kitchen manager Zach Gart, a recent graduate of University of Denver, shares the company’s dedication to nutritious food. Originally trained in a more traditional style of cooking that emphasized the use of butter and cream, Gart realized that wasn’t consistent with his own lifestyle. LYFE’s menu is. “Not only is the food absolutely delicious, it’s pure fuel,” Gart said. “It’s what your body needs to keep operating the best it possibly can.” Sample menu items include roasted
mushroom and goat cheese flatbread, squash lemongrass soup, grass-fed burgers and steaks, roasted salmon, tomato and fennel, flavored waters, smoothies and freshsqueezed juice. Wine and beer, including four Colorado craft beers, also are on the menu. In a nod to Colorado, the menu also includes bison tacos. One wall is dedicated to a massive John Fielder landscape, and both a table and the facade on the outside patio are made of beetle-kill pine. The Mitchells, Gart and Donahue were among a team who participated in the May 28 “sprout cutting,” an event unique to LYFE, during which staffers celebrate a restaurant’s opening by cutting a string of Brussels sprouts and peppers. “I feel humble at the vision of the brand,” DJ said. “It’s just such a beautiful thing, what we’re trying to accomplish.”
Les Franklin lost two sons to suicide, one as a teenager and another as an adult. He’s since devoted his life to helping those who may be considering suicide and who have suffered its impacts. Franklin is among several speakers who will highlight the LoveMirrorMirror teen suicide prevention rally, set for 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. June 14 at Highlands Ranch High School. Other speakers will include Cresthill Middle School Principal Sid Rundle, Second Wind Fund director Richard Eveleigh and Katie Higgins, a recent high school graduate. The three-hour event also includes a resource fair, with booths representing a variety of youth-oriented community groups, a video presentation and a free fitness class sponsored by Littleton-based Ballet Physique. The rally was organized by a Douglas County resident who was moved to action after witnessing her teenage daughter’s reaction to a friend’s suicide. “She attended her first funeral for a high school friend last year,” said Robin Pasley, a mother of four who works at TW Telecom. “I just started seeing the struggles she’s been having, and the pressures kids are under.” To date in 2014, four Douglas County teenagers have been lost to suicide, according to Coroner Lora Thomas. Pasley was surprised at the amount of resources available to help teens, and realized others might be similarly unaware of those resources, as well as the issue of teen suicide. “I want to bring it out into the light so other people can see,” she said. Franklin, who’s given thousands of presentations in both the United States and Canada, looks forward to sharing his message with Douglas County families. Franklin and his wife Marianne founded the Denver-based Shaka Franklin Foundation for suicide prevention and awareness, named after the 16-year-old son they lost to suicide, in 1990. In 2000, the couple’s only other child, 31-year-old Jamon, was found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning. “Not a day goes by I don’t think about my sons,” Les Franklin said. “I miss being called `Dad’ and `Pops’ by my sons, the Father’s Day cards I’d get from them. I look at my friends who have grandchildren and great-grandchildren. I’ll never have any of those things.” Suicide continues on Page 8
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