Dec 28, 2021
When Rivkah Sass retired last month as director and CEO of the Sacramento Public Library, she left behind a list of accomplishments that could fill, well, a book.
But make no mistake. Just because she retired doesn’t mean the tireless Sass will be less busy.
“I have other adventures to be determined,” she says. “My No. 1 priority will be spending time with my two new grandchildren who live in Idaho—Facetime is nice but it’s not the same as cuddling two squirmy, stinky boys.
“No. 2 on my list is to get certified to teach English as a foreign language so I can do more work with the Zaatari refugee camp on the Syrian border. There’s also my guilty pleasure, the Isle of Wight Donkey Sanctuary. I plan to go there to volunteer. I also want to learn to read music. And, of course, I plan to consult with libraries, since they’re my passion.”
Dec 28, 2021
Their weapon is a crossbow—gunshots draw attention. They skulk under cover of darkness, late at night and early in the morning. Night-vision optics help locate their targets—big bucks with large antlers. The bigger, the better.
“They call the arrow a bolt,” says Tim McGinn, wildlife advocate, nature photographer and longtime member of the American River Natural History Association. “The tips are like five little razor blades. If they hit them in the lungs or chest area, the deer will last maybe two or three minutes. It’s lethal.”
Dec 28, 2021
If you are interested in music and making new friends, James Broderick has a perfect opportunity.
Broderick is volunteer coordinator for the Sacramento chapter of Guitars for Vets, a national nonprofit that provides free guitar instruction to struggling veterans.
“The vets we serve have been referred to us by counselors and therapists at the VA and lessons are held at VA facilities,” Broderick says. “Few of the vets we teach have any musical experience. For the most part, we’re talking raw beginners.
“Our goal for 2022 is to expand our volunteer corps dramatically and unleash an army of guitar players upon the world.”
Nov 28, 2021
Rekhi Singh’s motto is simple: “Happy people are more successful.”
Singh is on a mission to help everyone find wellbeing through happiness. He has founded programs and centers around the world to study of the science of happiness—including one at his alma mater, Sacramento State.
“Whatever you do unhappily, you can do it better if done happily,” says Singh, a native of India who moved to Singapore at age 30 and then to Sacramento in 1987 to earn his MBA. “Happy people are more successful than the other way around. A meaningful life is where you feel connected and help others.”
Nov 28, 2021
When I first arrived in Sacramento, yearning to play tennis, I lurked around the McKinley Park courts in East Sacramento to see who was playing and when. Feeling courageous, I stuck my nose through the fence to watch a senior mixed doubles group.
A player retrieving a ball asked if he could be of help. “I’m looking for a game,” I said. Generously he offered, “You can play with us.” That was the beginning of fun and friendship.
A perfect example of energetic, enthusiastic play, this McKinley senior mixed doubles group has existed for more than 20 years. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, they use about three courts—down from five courts or more during healthier, pre-COVID times.
Nov 28, 2021
In 1984, a group of singers formed the Sacramento Gay Men’s Chorus to provide a safe place for gay men to meet and make music as the AIDS epidemic began to rage.
That same year, Lynda Walls was in Washington state managing and promoting bands at the start of the grunge movement, while “doing everything from stuffing envelopes to organizing marches” as an AIDS-awareness activist.
Little did Walls know that decades later, she would become executive director of the chorus that provides a voice—in more ways than one—for more than 100 LGBTQ residents of the Sacramento area.
