Lisa Harrison, Managing Editor  | Lisa@LifestylePubs.com

Article Lisa Allen | Photography Courtesy of Bob Schluben

Most people run away from serious issues. Bob Schluben runs to fight them. A Lenexa Police Officer, Schluben has been a runner most of his adult life. In 2012 he ran 27 marathons and is on track to run 52 in 2013.

You read that right. 52 marathons in the calendar year 2013; one marathon each week to raise awareness and funds for Sunflower House and SAFE.

Schluben started running by participating in 5K and 10K races, but then set a goal to run a marathon. His first, the Kansas City Marathon, was in 2009. Like anyone who juggles the responsibilities of work and parenthood, Schluben says that his biggest challenge in reaching his 52 in 2013 goal isn’t running. It’s logistics.

“My biggest challenge is scheduling, traveling to and from each of the marathons, and finding time to spend with my sons each week,” he says. He’s passed the running bug to his two sons, Kyle and Connor. At 10 Kyle sometimes runs a half-marathon while his dad runs the full race; at six, Connor is too young to participate just yet.

Kyle has run three races with Schluben so far this year; the First Light Marathon in Alabama, The Dustbowl Marathon in

New Mexico and The Garden Spot Village Marathon in Pennsylvania. Schluben says that while Kyle enjoys the races, the real perk of their joint efforts is that they are able to take father-son trips together. Kyle’s running will take a hiatus during the summer months as his baseball and soccer schedules become heavier. Schluben, however, will keep running, because the causes he is running for never take a break.

Schluben chose the two beneficiaries of his efforts–Sunflower House and SAFE–because, as a police officer, he understands the impact each organization makes in the community.

“Both organizations are invaluable to our community,” says Schluben. “The 52 marathons of 2013 are designed to raise awareness and money for them.”

Sunflower House provides protection for children who have suffered abuse through education, advocacy, forensic and med- ical services. SAFE supports families who have lost a loved one while they served our community, particularly law enforcement officers, firefighters and emergency service personnel. Though no amount of outreach can bring back a family member, SAFE offers emotional and financial support during a family’s time of need.

Adam Blue would be the first to admit he’s no hippie. He played college golf at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, graduated with a degree in communication studies from the University of Arkansas and is now working on his MBA. Sure, he enjoys the outdoors, but the Prairie Village man may not be the type of entrepreneur you’d expect to be launching a boutique presence with a website that caters to the “hippie” in all of us.

With Brandon Hermrec and Conner Snedden, Blue runs the website imprettyhippie.com, which sells crew and V-neck T-shirts, long-sleeve shirts, crew sweatshirts and zip-up hoodies – all around a motif aimed at consumers who want to channel their inner hippie. The company’s simple proposition lies in its tag line: “I’m pretty hippie, are you?”

Visitors to their website are greeted by a quintessential Midwestern image: a series of “I’m pretty hippie” T-shirts, strung to dry on a clothesline between tall trees.

“It all started when I was living with Brandon and he came home from work one day and told me about a conversation he had with a co-worker about how so many people think they are ‘pretty hippie’ for one reason or another,” Blue said. “This made a lot of sense to me because I know a lot of people who would claim that about themselves and there really is a growing and broadened sense of the word these days. So we started just asking around if people thought they viewed themselves as ‘pretty hippie’ and why.

“We found most people can find something about themselves they would consider ‘pretty hippie’, whether it’s they like wearing sandals in the winter, stringing up the hammock and reading outside, doing outdoor activities such as biking or hiking, or just finding themselves as a free spirit. Our conclusion was that the term ‘hippie’ is just completely subjective and people can make it what they want, whatever makes them unique or ‘free.’ “

This is a busy year for Blue. In addition to nurturing the apparel business, he’s getting married in June and is furiously working toward his MBA in marketing from Avila University. He lives in Prairie Village and has spent his entire life in Johnson County. “It is such a nice area with a wide range of individuals, but there is a sense of community and respect and people typically can find a common ground in one way or another, which is something we have tried to do with our lifestyle brand. I can’t imagine a better place to be raised or raise a family of my own.”

So what attracted Blue to the hippie ethos and a business around it?

“We wanted our brand to make people think, which is where the ‘are you?’ comes into play…We felt that we identified a unique market of individuals that believed what we believed.”

Currently, “i’m prettyhippie” has a physical presence in a pair of  Fayetteville, Ark., retail shops, but Blue and his partners are betting big on the website, where buyers can choose from various colored shirts featuring the outline of a sun and its rays with the “i’m prettyhippie” tag streaking across the bottom of the sun.