Sep 28, 2022
Raymond L. Ledesma has been an athlete, army medic, engineer, bar owner, writer, husband and father. At age 88, he recently learned to play guitar. But in some ways, he’s just getting started.
“My ambitions for the rest of my life are to get a boulevard in Sacramento named after my grandpa, who was a famous saddle maker, and get a book published,” Ledesma says.
Endless ambitions have taken Ledesma around the world. As a kid growing up in Fruitridge and Curtis Park, he attended C.K. McClatchy High School where he played baseball and football. When he got drafted, he attended medic training in San Antonio before spending six months in Korea.
Sep 28, 2022
What’s the most important thing Anne DeStefano wants people to know about Sacramento Fine Arts Center in Carmichael?
“That we exist!” says DeStefano, a fiber artist and jewelry maker who joined the center 10 years ago. “I don’t know if people realize that the center is there and that we have significant gallery space. Each month, we have a different show on exhibit. It’s quite a range of variety.”
Sacramento Fine Arts Center was founded in 1986 by several local, independent art clubs that came together to share their love of art and pool resources for shows and classes. The center now boasts roughly 300 members from different disciplines—painters, sculptors, fiber artists and more. They share responsibilities, run the giftshop and teach classes.
Sep 28, 2022
For Miguel Perez, being bilingual is like having a superpower.
“I like to remind my students that it’s a gift being able to read, write and speak in two languages,” says Perez, a fifth-grade teacher at the Language Academy of Sacramento, a public charter school near Stockton Boulevard and Broadway that offers bilingual education in English and Spanish.
Aug 28, 2022
For Miguel Perez, being bilingual is like having a superpower.
“I like to remind my students that it’s a gift being able to read, write and speak in two languages,” says Perez, a fifth-grade teacher at the Language Academy of Sacramento, a public charter school near Stockton Boulevard and Broadway that offers bilingual education in English and Spanish.
“The students in the community we’re serving have parents that are English learners, so the benefit is they’re able to apply bilingualism in multiple settings. They can help translate for family members or in the real world. I’ve had students who’ve helped translate for someone at a checkout line who was having a hard time communicating. There’s a lot of power behind that.”
Perez has spent almost 10 years empowering his students through bilingual instruction in reading, writing, math, social studies and science.
Aug 28, 2022
Sacramentans love their dogs. With two municipal animal shelters, a state-of-the-art SPCA, 22 off-leash dog parks and dozens of mutt-friendly restaurants, Sacramento canines are living big.
California law authorizes food facilities to allow pet dogs in outdoor dining areas as long as the city or county does not pass an ordinance prohibiting the pooches, and restaurant owners do not object. There must be a separate outdoor entrance and dogs must remain on leash and off chairs.
Aug 28, 2022
Did you know we have a local fire museum?
I didn’t until I spoke with Larry Schluer, board member and volunteer docent manager of the Sacramento Regional Fire
Museum in West Sacramento, which recently reopened after closing for the pandemic.
“It’s been tough,” admits Schluer, a retired firefighter. His family has put out blazes since 1865 when his great-grandfather emigrated from Germany and helped found Woodland’s first fire company.
