Name: Lorilyn Bockelman
City of residence: Wellington
Occupation: Co-owner of Owl Canyon Coffee, office operations manager of Blue Pine Construction, founding member of Wellington’s Parks, Recreation, Open Spaces, and Trails Advisory Board
Where in Wellington do you live? What’s your neighborhood like?
We live north of town. Wellington is a great community. There are a lot of people who live in the surrounding areas. I live with my husband and our two kids.
Tell us about your businesses.
My husband and I have Blue Pine Construction; it’s a residential construction company. We’ve had that for over 15 years. And we have Owl Canyon Coffee, which we bought with my mom about two years ago. We have always wanted a way to spend more time with the community.
Do you have a favorite coffee order or something else Owl Canyon Coffee is known for?
Our lattes change every month to every two months, and we have specials. We just updated our signature lattes, and they are all named after different owls. The Eagle Owl and the Tawny Owl are two of my favorites: The Eagle Owl has dark chocolate, coconut and hazelnut, and the Tawny Owl has Swiss chocolate and caramel. We also have seasonal lattes. Right now, we have a Honey Lavender Latte and a Violet Latte with vanilla sugar.
Do you host any events at Owl Canyon Coffee?
Absolutely. Just this year, we had the St. Paddy’s Parade & Festival. That was our first year. We also have the Fourth of July parade and festival, and then our Parade of Lights in December. So we always stay open for that.
We also participate in Mingle on Main, so the third Friday of every month, the shops down here stay open later, and we stay open later. It’s a great time for people to walk around downtown, come see us and get a coffee, go to the restaurants and visit the shops. We have lots of great shops. We have Thistle, we have The NoCo Clover and we have Rose & Co., so it’s a great time to come down and check those out.
What other ways you are involved in the Wellington community?
I got involved with the parks back in 2014. The town had started a parks advisory board, so we advise our town trustees on all things regarding open space, parks and trails. I’ve been on that board now for over 10 years, and I really enjoy it. We have nine parks in Wellington, and we continue to work on our trail system.
My husband and I volunteered this past year at the high school. We have a senior this year, and we got to be part of the booster club, so we were really involved in that.
We are also volunteering for the Cleveland Avenue Construction Committee that’s happening. We’re going to have some construction in downtown Wellington coming up later this year into next year, so we’re part of a committee that is trying to make it easier for the businesses that will be impacted.
What do you love most about living in Wellington?
Everything. Wellington is great. We have so many great restaurants, breweries and shops. We have lots of parks, and we have lots of things happening in parks. We have Movies in the Park happening this summer. But really, it’s just the friendliness of the people. This is a great town. Everybody checks on everybody, and it’s just a really special place to live.
If you had a friend or family member visiting for the weekend, what are some things you would make sure to take them to do?
Just north of town, we have Red Mountain Open Space, and our family loves to go up there. We also use Soapstone Prairie Natural Area. Downtown Wellington is a great place to come back to and have lunch. We have Avuncular Bob’s T-Bar Inn, Sol De Jalisco, Papa’s Table, Ghost Dog Deli and Wellington Grill. We have lots of restaurants here.
What does family mean to you?
We have our immediate family, so my husband, Mike, and our two kids. We have an 18-year-old and an 8-year-old. So family, to us, is just spending time together. It’s also multi-generational: We spend a lot of time with my parents, who moved to Wellington from Iowa, and we try as much as possible to spend time with Mike’s mom, who is over in Grand Junction. We just came back from a vacation, and we got to take both of our moms with us.
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