Grand Opening Plans

We are currently looking at mid March for a Grand Opening. We intend to open in February, but our Grand Opening event will be March 17 (tentative). I have a friend who has Darth Vader and Storm Trooper armor (real stuff, like in the actual movies). In fact, George Lucas flew him to NYC to do publicity events in Times Square when the Star Wars Battlefront 2 video game was released!
In exchange for a donation to Memorial Hospital's pediatric ward, Matt and his friends are going to be at our Grand Opening. We will be offering photos with them for $5, and the proceeds will also be donated to Memorial Hospital (their headquarters/admin offices are right behind us).
In the afternoon, I want to have the US Olympic Judo team on site, and we will do the same thing with the photos. All proceeds from the afternoon session will go to support the US Olympic Judo team. I still need to work out arrangements with Tammy Liddie, the USA Judo Project Manager (her husband is Ed Liddie, the Olympic coach and bronze medalist in the 1984 Olympic Games).
Here is a shot of Ed Liddie helping Jonah with his belt:



A local magazine editor contacted me and wanted to purchase some of my photography for use in her magazine. I told her I would rather work out a trade instead of $$ payment. She is going to give us advertising space in her magazine, as well as write a several page feature article on us and our business! She has approx 15 years experience as a graphic artist in advertising, and she also offered to work on our business cards, letterhead, logo, color schemes, etc... How cool is that?

I need to nail down the dates and plans soon, as we have family planning to travel to Colorado for our opening!

On a side note, stop by our friends' coffee shop on Boulder and Institute if you find yourself in the area. Paul and Heather's shop is called the Raven's Nest, and they have awesome coffee! Their roaster is Crowfoot Valley, out of Castle Rock, Colorado.