Features

LAKEWOOD — A bevy of beautiful gowns hanging on racks and walls in the community room of the Belmar Library gave young shoppers many selections to consider during the annual Prom Swap on Friday afternoon.

Teens and their moms gazed at a variety of styles and colors from full-length turquoise gowns with draped bodices to short purple dresses adorned with sparkly beads. Tuxedos for guys also were among the offerings.

Friends greeted each other while checking out dresses and tuxes and trying them on for size.

Deep snow covering the ground brought the Easter sunrise service indoors at Heritage United Methodist Church on Sunday morning.

In the warmth of the sanctuary, which was decorated with spring flowers, the Rev. Loren Boyce, senior pastor, led a spirited service filled with song, scripture, words of hope — and humor.

In his message to the congregation, Boyce told the story of a Sunday school teacher who was explaining the story of Jesus rising from the tomb to her third-grade class.

“The word has been spread that Rosa Parks was a little old tired woman. I was tired, but my feet did not come into it. … The only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”

Actress Becky Stone spoke these heartfelt words in her portrayal of the civil rights icon at Arapahoe Community College on Feb. 23.

Presenting a perspective of Parks in her later years, Stone enacted the story of the woman’s refusal to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Ala., in a time when black people deferred to white bus riders.

Lifelong friends Chuck Hause and Lou Fohn grew up in Columbine in an era when wheat grew on area farms and coal from mines near West Coal Mine Avenue heated homes.

As a young man, Fohn learned to fly an airplane at the former Columbine Airport on West Ken Caryl Avenue.

Hause remembers when there was only a convenience store in the area to buy gasoline and groceries without making the drive to downtown Littleton.

Helping fellow players is the goal of the Dawg Nation Hockey Foundation — as a recent charitable effort underscores.

The Littleton-based group raised a whopping $85,000 at a tournament dedicated to hockey player Dave Repsher of Silverthorne, who suffered critical injuries in the crash of a Flight for Life helicopter last July.

“Let’s go! Let’s go!” a parent urged youngsters playing in the Jeffco Youth Charity Tournament at Chatfield Senior High last Thursday.

Four 3-on-3 basketball games were under way in the high school gym, as the youngsters played half-court in 15-minute periods.

Fifty-two teams of girls and boys in grades four through eight participated in the fifth annual tourney, which raised more than $6,000 for the Jeffco Schools Foundation.

Christmas came early this year for one small turtle with a huge personality. 

The reptile, affectionately named Stretch by a Jeffco sheriff's officer, was discovered along with his feline cousin, Homer, when deputies responded to a call regarding a deceased person in a home. 

Jeffco animal control officer Chana Guy also was dispatched to assist on the call, which came during the Dec. 15 snowstorm that closed most local schools. 

For Cookie, a 2-year-old Cavalier King Charles spaniel, the diagnosis was grim. The dog needed expensive surgery, or he was going to die.

But thanks to the generosity of a local veterinarian, Cookie and his South Jeffco family are looking forward to a sweet and joyful Christmas.

The feisty and playful pup has been a constant companion to the Sumner family for eight years, since Cookie was 8 weeks old. Yet Melissa Sumner knew on a recent day that something was terribly wrong with her family’s best friend.

Santa stopped in Littleton last week and brought arctic weather with him.

The holiday season kicked off Friday as St. Nick, along with a collection of singing and dancing elves, made his way down Main Street downtown for the city’s Candlelight Walk.

Hundreds packed the closed street to welcome Santa and watch as more than a million Christmas lights adorning the trees downtown winked on. It was a picture-perfect winter scene — with the temperature in the teens.