Roger Hoffman:  

d lake a pond, but after falling through the ice in the winter of 1967 when I was 8 years old, I've always considered it a lake. I'm here today because of my friend Jeff, who ran for help, and Mr. Shelton, a heroic neighbor dad who swam through the ice to pull me out. In subsequent winters I spent much time skating on the lake, but only when it was really frozen solid. On summer nights my Dad and I would catch catfish and in my teenage years I camped at the lake with my friends and fished, filling our stringers with bluegill, bass and catfish. My older brother and I swam at the Westlake Beach Club until it closed in 1972. After that the lake became our swimming spot and we played Little League and Babe Ruth Baseball in Avon, with Dad coaching our teams. We grew up listening to The Beatles and I can still recall our family sitting together on the couch and watching their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan show. Yeah, I'm THAT old. I graduated from Avon High School in 1976 and went to college at IU's Herron School of Art and Design where I received a Bachelors in Graphic Design for Advertising (Visual Communications). Since then I have been an Art Director and Creative Manager for publishing and manufacturing companies. I was unbelievably fortunate to meet Nancy in 1989. We were married in 1990 and are blessed with three terrific kids, Caleb, Leah and Noah. In 2001 we converted an old 3200sf storefront in downtown Plainfield into a Christian coffeehouse. The Comfort Zone Coffeehouse was a full service coffee bar and deli and a full time business for us. On weekend nights we featured live Christian music on our stage. Though most of our artists were local, we occasionally featured national artists. We hosted concerts by: Terry Talbot and Barry McGuire, Anne Herring, Honeytree, Steve Camp, Dallas Holm, Mason Proffit, Carolyn Arends, Ashley Cleveland, Randy Stonehill, Eli, Tammy Trent, Pam Thum, Tim Wright, GS Megaphone, Larry Norman and Bob Bennett. We closed in 2005.".