Basalt-based Two Leaves Tea Co. will be one of several local products soon to be carried on the shelves of the new Whole Foods Market opening in the Roaring Fork Valley next month. While Two Leaves Tea has become a nationally recognized and internationally distributed brand, and is carried on the shelves of most Whole Foods Markets in the United States, the store in the Roaring Fork Valley will be featuring the tea company as one of its featured local products.

To that end, the store will be the only Whole Foods Market in the country to carry the entire Two Leaves Tea Co. line of tea sachets, typically only available on the company’s website at www.twoleavestea.com [1]. In addition, the store will be the only retailer in the valley to carry the company’s new line of English style tea, called the “Paisley Tea Co.”

In other Whole Foods Market news, it was announced last week that the Aspen Community School in Woody Creek and Yampah Mountain High School in Glenwood Springs will each receive $2,000 garden grants from the company’s Whole Kids Foundation, working in partnership with FoodCorps. The schools will join forces with company team members to break ground on July 19 and July 30.

The donations stem from last fall’s campaign in which customers visiting Colorado Whole Foods Market locations donated $100,000 to fund school garden grants across the state. Over 80 schools and garden agencies serving youth applied to receive the garden grants.

The Whole Kids Foundation will continue to fundraise and administer garden grants for the 2012-2013 school year and will again collect donations at registers across the country beginning in September.

Construction will take place on July 19 at the Yampah Mountain High School and on July 30 in Woody Creek at the Aspen Community School.

In addition to the garden grants, the Roaring Fork store, slated to open mid-August, will work with a variety of nonprofits and organizations as part of its community partnership program, such as the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies (Rock Bottom Ranch); Lift Up; Lucky Day; the Buddy Program; Aspen Valley Ski & Snowboard Club and the Red Brick Center for the Arts.
 

Viceroy Snowmass, the only Gold LEED certified luxury property in Colorado, has been awarded the 2012 Certificate of Excellence by TripAdvisor.

The award honors hospitality excellence. The accolade is given only to establishments that consistently achieve outstanding traveler reviews on TripAdvisor, and is extended to qualifying businesses worldwide. Approximately 10 percent of accommodations listed on TripAdvisor receive this award.

Former Basalt Town Manager Bill Kane is returning to Aspen-based Design Workshop.

Kane has over 30 years of experience in planning and design for mountain resort communities. Much of his career has been focused in the Aspen area, where he has served in various planning roles.

He holds a master of regional planning from the University of Pennsylvania, and served as the city planner for Fort Collins before becoming planning director for Aspen and Pitkin County. In that role, he developed the first growth management plan for the community, completed design and implementation for Aspen’s mall and pedestrian streets, and helped to implement many of the land-use controls which now govern development in Pitkin County.

In 1985, Kane joined Design Workshop Inc., also in Aspen, serving as a partner in the firm before joining Aspen Skiing Co. in October of 1996 where he served as vice president in charge of planning, permitting and development of capital facilities.

In October of 2005, Kane rejoined Design Workshop as a principal providing assistance on a special project basis. And now, after a brief time with the town of Basalt, Kane is returning to Design Workshop once again.

Founded in 1969, Design Workshop is an international landscape architecture, land planning, urban design and strategic services firm with five offices in the U.S.

SDS Real Estate has changed its name in order to strengthen its position in market. SDS Real Estate will now be called Shane Aspen Real Estate.

“We feel our revised brand is powerful, contemporary and better reflects the company’s direction, sophistication and commitment to the community. It’s today and tomorrow; not yesterday,” said Steven Shane, owner/broker of Shane Aspen Real Estate. “We compete with larger, older ‘business as usual’ firms, but we want our clientele to know that we are a young, creative, hard-working group of brokers.”

Shane Aspen Real Estate is opening a second office at 790 East Valley Road in Basalt, directly across from the new Whole Foods. The new office is scheduled to open on Aug. 15.

The company has a new website as well: ShaneAspen.com.

This year’s Alpine Bank Latino/Hispanic scholarship program is helping 13 students from 12 Western Slope high schools attend Colorado Mountain College next fall. Many of the scholars will be the first members of their families to attend college.

The Alpine Bank scholarship program, now in its 17th year, is designed to promote diversity in Colorado Mountain College’s student body and to put college within reach for qualified Latino high school graduates from Eagle, Garfield, Pitkin, Routt and Summit counties. The scholarship covers the cost of books, fees and tuition for two years.

Four students from Aspen and Basalt earned 2012 Alpine Bank scholarships: Baneza Andrades Vargas, Aspen High School; Maritza Araiza and Kevin Kiyoshi Nakagawa, Basalt High School; and Basalt resident Natalie Avila, Yampah Mountain High School.

This year’s other scholarship recipients and their respective high schools are Dolly Contreras, Glenwood Springs; Ana Orellana, Steamboat Springs; Venezia Cuadras, Coal Ridge; Heidi Acosta, Rifle; Levi Ernest, Red Canyon; Stella Martinez, Battle Mountain; Damian Montes, Eagle Valley; Edeyanira Martinez, Summit; and Oscar Tena, Roaring Fork.