Lyons Township High School perks up with coffee shop run by transition students

LA GRANGE – Business is brewing at a new Western Springs coffee shop run through the Lyons Township High School Transition Program.

Transition Perks, 1062 Hillgrove Ave., celebrated its grand opening at 7:30 a.m. Friday. The shop, located inside Western Springs' Tropical Sno, will be run by students in the school's Transition Program. Through the program, students between the ages of 18 and 22 learn every day skills to assist with independent adult lives.

The coffee shot will be open each school day from 7:30 to 10:30 a.m. Students working at the shop will practice customer service, handling money, tracking inventory and taking customers' orders.

Transition Program Vocational Coordinator Dave Paske said students will be working on both coffee and janitorial crews.

"We want as many kids as possible in this environment," Paske said. "We cannot duplicate this in the classroom."

[ Transition Perks will also partner with Riverside's Flur bakery by selling muffins and brownies made a flur and sold at the coffee shop, according to Paske. ]

A unique aspect of Transition Perks, Paske said, is that the profits made at the shop will be placed in a scholarship fund available to all students in the progrm. Paske said the fund will give students assistace with paying for their post-secondary school goals, whether those be vocational classes or training programs.

"Funding is not the greatest, especially for once the kids leave [LT]," Paske said. "That's what really makes us authentic. Every possible penny goes back to the program."

Along with the group fund, individual students can also start their own educational funds by selling special blend coffee cans, according to Paske.

The idea for Transition Perks began four years as a program at the high school where students delivered Keurig coffee to faculty members.

[ Paske credited Tropical Sno owner Nicholas Cozzi with helping get the coffee shop program started. Cozzi donated his store front to the program during Tropical Sno's off season. ]

Cozzi, who's younger brother will work at the shop through the program, said Paske orginally contacted him in September about using the store. While Cozzie still plans to reopen Tropical Sno in the summer selling flavor shaved ice, he said this will give transition students an opportunity they might not come across otherwise.

Cozzi, a junior at St. Ambrose University in Iowa, said he thought the program was a great idea and he hopes they can continue to run the coffee shop until Tropical Sno reopens.

"I'm hoping individual students gain that knowledge of what it's like to interact with the customers and having to show up for work and having a responsibility," Cozzi said.

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Pick up a cup of joe at Transition Perks during the school week.

Location: 1062 Hillgrove Ave.

Hours: Monday through Friday 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.

For more information visit www.lths.net