Shelby Hintze, Colony PR

Small Business Highlight: Fit 4 Life Park City

November 5, 2018 by Shelby Hintze, Colony PR

The holidays are upon us. We will spend the next two months (at least) eating every delicious treat we can see. It’s also cold outside and, aside from hitting the slopes, we also tend to become a bit more sedentary than during the summer months. While wrapping that oddly-shaped present or fighting the crowds at the mall may FEEL like a workout, Fit 4 Life personal trainer Jess McCurdy wants to really help you break a sweat and keep your mind, body, and spirit balanced—especially during this stressful time of year. Why wait for January 1^st?

Jess is a mom of four boys. Like so many women, she battled postpartum depression after the birth of her first son. Her doctor suggested she try running. She had her son in November and made it her goal to run her first half marathon in August. She didn’t win by any stretch — but she did finish! She says that began a new passion for distance running and fitness and that she found community and support through her running friends. Her goal is to bring that same sense of community to her clients. It doesn’t matter where you are in your fitness journey. Jess will work with you to create goals that fit your body and lifestyle. Fitness is about improving all aspects of your life—not making it harder!

Jess offers several training programs, called GRIT, with the goal to:

Grow your confidence
Renew your spirit
Ignite your power and
Transform your body in 2018

Her various group programs can all be done online so you can work it into your schedule, wherever you live. You’ll get videos with workouts and yoga plans. You’ll also get weekly calls with Jess to help coach you through the next week. And these programs aren’t just about exercise. She will provide you with tasty and easy meal plans to make sure you’re taking in the nutrients you need to power your workouts. Each training program also has a private Facebook group, where you can share your progress and encourage others also participating in the program.

If you need the in-person interaction to hold you accountable, Jess also offers several classes weekly in Park City.

In our last Small Business Highlight, we told you about The Paint Mixer. Its goal is to help people improve their mental health through art. And now — you can celebrate the art of movement. Jess offers several different classes at The Paint Mixer studio on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. You can check out her weekly schedule of group classes here.

And because fitness isn’t just about your physical health, Jess also wants to provide a place for her students to connect with each other. After all, she credits the camaraderie she developed with other distance runners as the thing she needed to push through wanting to quit while preparing for her first half marathon. When you sign up for a Bootcamp punch card, you get access to her classes at The Paint Mixer as well as a Facebook group where everyone can post recipes, goals, and words of encouragement.

As you achieve things that seem physically impossible, you will gain the confidence to push through other goals in your life that seem out of reach. Jess promises to help you set those fitness goals and figure out a plan to make them a reality. That confidence will then spill over into all aspects of your life—improving your overall health and wellness.

The Colony at White Pine Canyon is the largest gated ski-in / ski-out community in the United States. Our land spans 4600 acres, and approximately 90% of it will always be preserved as open space.

In winter, enjoy exclusive ski and snowboard access to one of North America’s largest mountain resorts, Park City Mountain. In spring, the snow melts to reveal an amazing network of hiking, biking, and horseback riding trails, connecting to more than 400 miles of single-track trails throughout the surrounding area.

The Colony is just 35 minutes from Salt Lake International Airport and minutes to Park City’s historic Main Street, home to the Sundance Film Festival and world-class dining and shopping.

Small Business Highlight: The Paint Mixer

October 29, 2018 by Shelby Hintze, Colony PR

We’re always looking for fun things to do with friends, family or coworkers that isn’t just going out to dinner; something that gets the creative juices flowing, lets you have a meaningful experience with your people… buuuut also doesn’t leave your house a mess. Enter The Paint Mixer!

You can create your own version of “Main Street (Winter)” at The Paint Mixer.

The Paint Mixer is a great way to get out of the dinner-and-a-movie rut. Here’s how it works: pick a class at either the Park City or Salt Lake City location. (You can also schedule your own private class for a party or team building.) You show up and all the supplies you need to make a masterpiece are ready for you. A teacher guides you through the process, step by step, to make a piece of art you’ll truly want to hang in your home! Much of the art you can choose from focuses on the beauty of Utah and the options rotate through the seasons. We love this picture of Main Street in the snow!

Before you protest that you’re not an artist, owner Jill Johnson argues that no perceived talent is necessary! The goal of the studio is to help you focus on the process and when you forget about results, you’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish.

In addition to owning The Paint Mixer, Jill is an art therapist. She has a private practice—Purity of Play, LLC—where she specializes in using art to help people working through trauma and PTSD.

In an interview with Verlocal about her work, Jill says, “With art, they disrupt their narratives and see alternative perspectives, ideas, and possible healing solutions.”

Whether you’re working through trauma, trying to add a bit more meaning to your life, or looking for a way to expand your creativity – painting can provide that. In fact, The Paint Mixer breaks down the 3 reasons why everyone should paint:

First, painting has therapeutic benefits. It can help decrease stress and has a similar effect on the body as meditation (!). As you focus on just the task in front of you, you start to forget about other worries you may have, giving your mind and body time to truly relax and breathe.

Next, it unleashes your creativity. We often don’t think we are creative people or even have a need to be creative. But anyone who has arranged a carpool or set up a particularly complicated spreadsheet knows we are always looking for creative solutions to everyday problems. Painting flexes that creative muscle in a low-risk, high-reward situation. And just like a muscle, the more you use it, the stronger it gets.

And finally, painting teaches us concentration and perseverance. Painting requires you to sit down and do something, start to finish. We often are working on a million things at once. It’s good to practice focusing on one task and completing it. It also teaches us to work through challenges.

Like Bob Ross always said, “There are no mistakes, just happy accidents.” This mindset makes it easier to come up with creative solutions in order to see mistakes as opportunities—in painting and in life.

Here’s what you need to know if you’re ready to get those creative juices flowing! Each class is about 2 hours long. Some are all ages, perfect for the whole family. If you’re looking for more of a night out vibe, there are also 21+ classes, where you can purchase a drink or two, sourced from local breweries and wineries.

The Paint Mixer also offers private classes for a party or team building workshop. And if you can’t get your whole group to one of their two locations, they’ll gladly come to you in the aptly titled Van Go Mobile Studio – which can accommodate groups of up to 300 people!

If you have an idea of something you’d like to do, shoot them an email – they are extremely open to bringing your ideas to life.

We all need a way to clear our minds and channel our creative energy. What better way to do it than with some friends, a glass of wine and a beautiful painting at the end?

And – as if you need another reason to experience the fun of The Paint Mixer – the business also donates 5% of its profits to local causes. It has donated more than $10,000 – and counting! – to the community.

The Paint Mixer is located at 738 Main Street in Park City and 1327 E 2100 S in Salt Lake City. To see the schedule of classes and book your class or event, go to https://thepaintmixer.com.

The Colony at White Pine Canyon is the largest gated ski-in / ski-out community in the United States. Our land spans 4600 acres, and approximately 90% of it will always be preserved as open space.

In winter, enjoy exclusive ski and snowboard access to one of North America’s largest mountain resorts, Park City Mountain. In spring, the snow melts to reveal an amazing network of hiking, biking, and horseback riding trails, connecting to more than 400 miles of single-track trails throughout the surrounding area.

The Colony is just 35 minutes from Salt Lake International Airport and 5 minutes to Park City’s historic Main Street, home to the Sundance Film Festival and world-class dining and shopping.

Nonprofit Highlight: Children’s Justice Center

October 25, 2018 by Shelby Hintze, Colony PR

More than 25 years ago, Grethe Petersen was serving as a juror in a child abuse case in Utah. She watched as two young boys had to again recount the story of their abuse in a courtroom, in front of dozens of strangers. The jury wasn’t able to find the alleged abuser guilty and those two boys left the courtroom further traumatized than when they entered.

According to the CJC, 1 in 6 Utah boys and 1 in 4 Utah girls will be sexually assaulted before the age of 18—higher than the national average. Only 2% of victims are abused by a stranger–98% are abused by someone they know and should have been able to trust. That is an outrageous number of children every year who have to work through the justice system, often before they even know what a justice system is.

Grethe felt if we can’t help our children in the most traumatic situations, we have failed. She knew there had to be a better way and so she got to work.

She found an organization in Alabama that used a home environment in which to conduct interviews with children who were victims of crime or abuse. She began lobbying the state legislature to do something similar and in 1991, the Children Justice Center opened three centers in Salt Lake City, Provo, and Ogden.

Today, there are 23 centers across the state—at least one in every county. The centers allow trained staff to interview children in a comfortable environment. Those interviews are video recorded and then used in court proceedings so the kids don’t have to recount their trauma again and again.

https://youtu.be/_cROi2pboAQ

Here in Summit County, a team of Summit County and Park City Police detectives, caseworkers, prosecutors, victim advocates, and trauma-trained therapists and medical staff all help victims share their story and then move on with the healing process while criminal proceedings carry on.

The Summit County CJC is currently located in the Sheldon Richins Building in Kimball Junction–but the location is not ideal. The whole goal of the center is to help kids in a comfortable, homey environment, not an office building. And since it opened its doors in 2012, the center has seen more than 1500 children and the numbers continue to grow annually—meaning it needs more space.

The Summit County and Park City governments, the Utah Legislature, federal grants and private donations all help fund the CJC. Thanks to many donations, the nonprofit that supports the CJC, Community for Children’s Justice, has secured a new location to carry out the mission of the center. The new home for the CJC is the “zebra house” – on Silver Summit Parkway, adjacent to the southbound U.S. 40 on-ramp.

Community for Children’s Justice: a breakdown of how much money is needed and where it will go.

But as you well know, real estate in the Summit County area is not cheap. The property is also going to need some extensive renovations to make it fit the CJC’s needs. Community for Children’s Justice has seen great support from the local government but it just isn’t enough to provide this vital service to the community. So it is in the middle of a campaign to raise $2 million to secure the new property and keep it running.

This weekend, the center is hosting an open house so the community can see what the beginnings of the new center will look like.

It is Saturday, October 27^th from 4 p.m.to 6 p.m.
Please click HERE to register for the event.

The CJC is a testament to the power of a woman with a vision. Grethe Petersen saw a need in her community and she did what it took to fix it. She said, “One person can make a difference. If you care enough and have the energy to do it, you do it!”

At this moment in our lives, it’s not possible to lobby the legislature to fix the problems we see in our communities. But what we CAN do is help those fighting the good fight. They can’t do it without our support.

The Colony at White Pine Canyon is the largest gated ski-in / ski-out community in the United States. Our land spans 4600 acres, and approximately 90% of it will always be preserved as open space.

In winter, enjoy exclusive ski and snowboard access to one of North America’s largest mountain resorts, Park City Mountain. In spring, the snow melts to reveal an amazing network of hiking, biking, and horseback riding trails, connecting to more than 400 miles of single-track trails throughout the surrounding area.

The Colony is just 35 minutes from Salt Lake International Airport and minutes to Park City’s historic Main Street, home to the Sundance Film Festival and world-class dining and shopping.

Small Business Highlight: Main Street Deli & Eatery

October 21, 2018 by Shelby Hintze, Colony PR

Park City is known for bringing diners some of the most high-end, luxurious dining experiences Utah has to offer. But sometimes, you just need a quick, hearty and inexpensive –but not cheap– bite to eat. Whether you’re out with the family, taking in the sights of Historic Main Street, Park City, or rushing off to a meeting, the new Main Street Deli & Eatery wants to be your go-to.

The Main Street staple is operating under new ownership – after the previous proprietors (of 33 years!) decided to hang up their aprons and enjoy retirement. Enter Grace McGowan & Katie Babcock. East-Coast transplants, both have experience working in some of Park City’s top kitchens but were drawn to fast casual dining.

They wanted to create an environment where people could grab a quick sandwich or sit and chat with friends. They knew that if the deli went under, Main Street would lose its only restaurant catering to people looking for a quick and affordable meal.

Both Katie and Grace’s expertise runs the gamut when it comes to the best Park City restaurants. They met in 2015 while working at High West. When Katie got the opportunity to take over the deli, she told KCPW she knew Grace would be the one with whom to take this journey. Both women said while they loved working in high-end kitchens, they missed interacting with people. Katie says – now that they are in charge – when they get a request from a customer, it’s not, “can we do this?” Instead, it’s “how do we do this?”

One of their favorite examples is the recent help they gave to a wedding party. The Deli was asked if they could make a salad to feed 10 people — oh, and they needed it in just 15 minutes. They were able to make it happen because there was no one above them to ask; they just got to work!

In October of 2017, the pair took over the Deli. After a few months of nonstop work, they opened a totally renovated space in January 2018. An adorable, bright restaurant space was revealed – as was the kitchen, which was opened up so customers can watch the creation process from start to finish.

The new Deli also gives both Katie and Grace that customer interaction they wanted. Big front windows allow copious amounts of light to pour in—and bar seating provides the perfect perch for Main Street people watching.

While the food is affordable, Main Street rent isn’t… quite. So the pair has found creative solutions to bring in a little extra cash.

The eatery offers catering platters, aimed specifically at realtors after hearing from realtor friends that they would love a platter of goodies for open houses.

They are also part of a rotation of restaurants that makes lunches for the Weilenmann School of Discovery. They say they have made a lot of conscious decisions when it comes to the menu in order to keep prices down while still offering a truly high-quality product.

Now let’s talk food. Katie grew up in Brooklyn, where you’re never too far from a great deli. And like the best New York delis, Main Street Deli makes its own pastrami, smokes its own salmon and roasts its own roast beef. The menu is simple, rotates often but has something for everything. House-made meats, sauces, and the freshest veggies are all great reminders though, that this isn’t a sandwich you could just whip up at home.

For breakfast, you can grab a number of egg sandwiches and wraps. The veggie bagel sandwich is true East Coast fare, slathered with a house-made cream cheese and a variety of veggies.

Or go sweet with Vanilla Belgium waffles, topped with fresh fruit. Oh, and did we mention select breakfast options are served all day? Because sometimes you just need an English muffin topped with a runny egg, crispy bacon, and melty cheese at 2 in the afternoon. We’ve all been there.

For lunch, the roast beef sandwich features house-made roast beef, caramelized onions, arugula, provolone and rounded off with a horseradish aioli with just the right amount of kick.

Or try the turkey Panini, with melty brie and a crisp, tart green apple. All sandwiches are accompanied by house-made chips or a cup of house-made soup, which rotates daily. If you’re trying to get in your veggies, a fresh salad bar offers a wide array of choices to help add a little variety to your salad game.

And our favorite part—the lighter fare section of the menu. So often, while out shopping, you hit that afternoon slump. You have a few hours until your dinner reservation but you’re hungry NOW. Try a piece of the Quiche of the Day or a slice of avocado toast to ward off those mid-afternoon hangry feelings.

Nothing on the menu is more than $12—most around $10—making it the perfect spot to fill your stomach and keep your wallet full, too.

Main Street Deli & Eatery is located at 525 Main Street. It is open 7 days a week, from 8 AM to 3 PM.

The Colony at White Pine Canyon is the largest gated ski-in / ski-out community in the United States. Our land spans 4600 acres, and approximately 90% of it will always be preserved as open space.

In winter, enjoy exclusive ski and snowboard access to one of North America’s largest mountain resorts, Park City Mountain. In spring, the snow melts to reveal an amazing network of hiking, biking, and horseback riding trails, connecting to more than 400 miles of single-track trails throughout the surrounding area.

The Colony is just 35 minutes from Salt Lake International Airport and 5 minutes to Park City’s historic Main Street, home to the Sundance Film Festival and world-class dining and shopping.

The Colony at White Pine Canyon is the largest gated ski-in / ski-out community in the United States. Our land spans 4600 acres, and approximately 90% of it will always be preserved as open space.

The Colony is just 35 minutes from Salt Lake International Airport and minutes to Park City’s historic Main Street, home to the Sundance Film Festival and world-class dining and shopping.

The Colony at White Pine Canyon is the largest gated ski-in / ski-out community in the United States. Our land spans 4600 acres, and approximately 90% of it will always be preserved as open space.

The Colony is just 35 minutes from Salt Lake International Airport and 5 minutes to Park City’s historic Main Street, home to the Sundance Film Festival and world-class dining and shopping.

The Colony at White Pine Canyon is the largest gated ski-in / ski-out community in the United States. Our land spans 4600 acres, and approximately 90% of it will always be preserved as open space.

The Colony is just 35 minutes from Salt Lake International Airport and minutes to Park City’s historic Main Street, home to the Sundance Film Festival and world-class dining and shopping.

The Colony at White Pine Canyon is the largest gated ski-in / ski-out community in the United States. Our land spans 4600 acres, and approximately 90% of it will always be preserved as open space.

The Colony is just 35 minutes from Salt Lake International Airport and 5 minutes to Park City’s historic Main Street, home to the Sundance Film Festival and world-class dining and shopping.

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