Patterson picks Chosen Frozen Yogurt for biz of the year

Assemblyman Jim Patterson (R-Fresno) has selected Chosen Frozen Yogurt in north Fresno as his district’s 2017 Small Business of the Year.

Married couple Rod and Kim Lichti opened the yogurt shop in 2013 after Rod’s 30-year career with the Clovis Police Department. The shop at 8967 N. Chestnut Ave. near Shepherd Avenue is a way for the Lichtis to give back to the community and especially highlight organizations that make a difference in the lives of children.

A current photo display inside the shop shares real-life stories of children in the Fresno County foster care system and highlights the local non-profit “City Without Orphans” which encourages families to adopt.

Adoption is one of the issues close to the heart of the Lichti family, according to a news release from Patterson, and it played a role in the name they chose for their business. In 2004, they added a 3-year-old girl from China to their family.

“We already had three children, but God had impressed adoption upon our hearts, and when we saw her picture a year earlier, we knew she was ours,” Kim said in a statement. “We chose her to be a part of our family forever.”

Eighteen months later, in a different Chinese province they chose another little girl without a family to join theirs — giving them two “Chosen” daughters.

Those little girls, now 14 and 16, help out at the yogurt shop along with their three older siblings.

Patterson will be on hand at the shop this Friday at 10 a.m. to present the resolution to the Lichti family.