This week's Pep Talk: "What Goes Around...."

Beau Jo’s Pizza is a Colorado-based establishment that has, for a long time, been near and dear to my heart, for more than its mouth-watering pizza pies and the honey I love to pour onto their crust.

Many years ago, when my son was just a toddler, a dear friend and I were dining there, along with Kyle, when the fellow transplanted Missourian snapped a picture of your humble correspondent and son. It’s a cherished photo that still hangs on my bedroom wall, near the closet. Each day when preparing to dress, I see that picture, along with a similar shot of Kyle’s younger sister Rachel. The photos remind me of a few things: my love, devotion and responsibility to them and how darn cute they were before becoming teenagers and beyond. Today, I’m just their old man and that’s okay.

Anyway, back to Beau Jo’s Pizza, www.beaujos.com. It was started 38 years ago in the small mountain town of Idaho Springs, nestled in the early stages of the Rocky Mountains just west of Denver. Recently, the famous apres ski hangout has returned to my life in a significant way because of its director of marketing Pam Friedentag. Earlier this year, while reading The Denver Business Journal, I happened across a story about Beau Jo’s partnership with the Autism Society of Colorado, www.autismcolorado.org. The first Wednesday of each month, the restaurant hosts families afflicted with autism.

In reading the article I was struck by the empathy the company has toward autistic families often reluctant to dine out because of fear of the unknown - will my lovely child have a tough moment, perhaps act out and make things uncomfortable? Well, Beau Jo’s has taken an attitude, “Who cares!” The maker of delicious mountain pizza pies understands the value of connecting with like-minded people and drawing strength and encouragement from one another for our unique challenges - in this case, the journey autism brings into families’ lives.

We all have our challenges, right? Well, this story, and accompanying picture - especially Friedentag’s eyes - inspired me to call and arrange a meeting with her and Betty Lehman, executive director of the non profit. I wanted to discuss ways the sports radio show I co-host, Drive Time with Mac and Doog, www.macanddoog.com, could help raise awareness of this wonderful partnership. I’ve been called a lot of things in life, smart never being one of them, but this was a smart call.

For it was from Beau Jo’s Arvada, Colorado location that I experienced a wonderful example of what we’re encouraged to remember in Galatians 6:9: “Never growing weary of doing good, for at the proper time you’ll reap the harvest if you just don’t give up.”

The store’s manager offered Doog and I, during our three-hour broadcast on the day Beau Jo’s was hosting the autism families, a complimentary pizza. Well, I was in the middle of a three-week dietary “cleanse” and pizza was taboo.

However, the manager quickly agreed to offering a Mac and Doog listener a free pizza if they came into the restaurant that evening. The phone lines lit up, the prize was given away and the winners, a lovely wife and husband, appeared before I departed later that evening.

Something I could not use - pizza because of a temporary diet - was offered to someone else who readily accepted and then, here’s where it became magical. The beautiful couple, upon completion of dinner, approached, gave thanks and offered, “Mark, we want to make a donation to the Autism Society of Colorado.”

Folks, the ol’ law of circulation was in effect that evening wasn’t it? A restaurant, a talk show host, a couple, guided by a belief of never growing weary of doing good things for each other. It really does work!

What goes around comes around. This week, let’s embrace that truth and most important, live it.