Features

A dance studio on West Quincy Avenue is walking through the steps to a rezoning in hopes of continuing to operate in its current location.

True Dance Academy at 8950 W. Quincy Ave., across the street from the federal prison, was granted a “home occupation” exception in 2009 by the Board of Adjustment that permitted the dance lessons if the owner lived on the property. But business owner Shelly Trujillo now is seeking a zoning change, since she has not been living there.

Volunteers from across the country were in South Jeffco last week to help with the next phase of construction for the Veterans Monument at Ken-Caryl Ranch.

The monument, which is being installed at the southeast corner of Crestone Mountain Drive and Sangre de Cristo Road just north of Shaffer Elementary School, is being built by a group of veterans and volunteers.

Disco lights and bedazzled skaters danced across The Edge Skating School’s home ice last weekend in a spring performance worthy of Caesars Palace.

“Viva Las Vegas” was the theme of this year’s show at The Edge Ice Arena, where about 50 students of all ages showed off their figure skating skills to proud families and friends on Friday night and Saturday afternoon. The show included six acts, each set to music from a different era in Las Vegas history.

The music ranged from Timberlake to Sinatra as the younger prom-goers made memories, and the older ones recalled their younger days.

The dance floor at Willowbrook Place was packed Saturday as members of the poms team from Dakota Ridge High put on the prom for residents of the memory care facility in South Jeffco. More than two dozen students mingled with about 40 of the facility’s residents while tunes kept the dance floor teeming.

Even under cloudy skies last week, the future looked bright at Mackintosh Academy.

The private school flipped the switch on 97 new solar panels that will provide up to 70 percent of the school’s electricity and save more than $285,00 over the next 30 years. Yet it wasn’t the energy or cost savings the panels will provide that drew hundreds to the gymnasium last Thursday.

Hundreds lined the stairs leading to Red Rocks Amphitheatre as they waited for gates to open for the traditional Easter sunrise service at 4:30 a.m. Sunday.

By the time 5 a.m. arrived, the park was inundated with thousands of worshipers making their pilgrimage in the predawn gloaming.

The Easter services, put on by the Colorado Council of Churches, have been a tradition since 1947. The event now draws more than 10,000 people to the iconic amphitheater before the sun rises on the Christian holy day.

Jimmie and Karen Luckey are no strangers to tough times.

The South Jeffco couple, who have two kids, both missed work last year because of health issues, with Jimmie undergoing back surgery and Karen dealing with kidney problems.

But the most difficult trial was yet to come: Jimmie was diagnosed in December with stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

The Littleton Museum offered an udderly enjoyable event Saturday at Bovines Are Divine.

The bountiful benefits of the bovine were on the hoof at the museum’s two working farmhouses. Museum re-enactors showed visitors how cheese was made, cream separated and butter churned 125 years ago.

The farmhouses’ oxen team of Ford and Fitz were on hand, showing guests how the heavy lifting got done before the advent of mechanical tractors.

A two-day-long party? Yes, marking 125 years might just be worthy of such an extended fete.

Littleton celebrated the 125th anniversary of its founding over the weekend with a two-day celebration that included a fireworks show and the opening of a new trail along the city’s historic ditch.

And to mark the quasquicentennial of Littleton becoming an official town, Gov. John Hickenlooper last week proclaimed March 8 as City of Littleton Day. Not bad for a little town that started with only 245 residents 125 years ago.