Unaware they are trespassing on land owned by the Sacramento Kings, hundreds of snowy egrets and black-crowned night herons have taken up residence in a deserted oasis on the north side of Sleep Train Arena.
From a chain-link fence surrounding the grassland, the birds can be seen gliding among cement slabs and rebar, the foundation for a baseball stadium project led by Greg Lukenbill in the late 1980s that never came to fruition.
When school’s out for the summer, you might imagine that parents would breathe a sigh of relief—but you’d be wrong. Planning your child’s summer camp schedule can be even more stressful than keeping up with the regular school year, as Arden-Arcade resident DJ Waldow can attest.
“Three summers ago, I was trying to plan my kids’ summer camp schedule,” says Waldow, who has a 10-year-old, 8-year-old and 5-year-old twins with his wife, a high-risk OB doctor. “The process was so crazy—you’d build a schedule, then go to each individual site and cross your fingers that they still had openings. Camps filled up really quickly, which was stressful, plus trying to coordinate our kids going to the same camp as their friends was very, very complicated. There was no simple, easy way to find different camps in Sacramento.”
Necessity can spur literary creativity. Just ask Marilyn Reynolds, an author and retired high school teacher who lives in River Park.
As a teacher at what she calls a “last chance” high school in Southern California between the 1970s and 1990s, Reynolds faced a classroom dilemma. Most of her at-risk students did not want to read. Suggesting classics such as “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “The Pearl” failed to change the situation.
Every little bit helps. No one knows that more than Dawn Dais, founder of the nonprofit Throwing Starfish Foundation.
“People want to help, but they get overwhelmed because there’s so much need,” Dais says. “It makes you want to throw your hands up—but the truth is, if we all did a little bit, it adds up to something really large.”
What can performers do during a lockdown when they can’t reach a live audience? Dinorah Klingler, who simply goes by Dinorah, set up a stage in front of her Pocket home.
For three months, the popular Latina musician and producer of regional mariachi festivals has entertained neighbors and friends. Once a week, her cul-de-sac comes alive with joyful singing and dancing in the street—all with social distancing. Count me as a fan.
Many children live with stress. According to a peer-reviewed study in The Journal of Pediatrics in 2016, 7.1 percent of American kids 7 to 13 years old, or 4.4 million, had anxiety problems. Some show it. Others do not.
What can parents do to help make their children’s lives less stressful? Anti-anxiety medication is one treatment option; however, there are side effects to consider. Fortunately, other options exist. One is hypnosis. Just ask John Zulli, Ph.D., a clinical hypnosis practitioner based in Sacramento, with 34 years of experience.
Why opt for hypnosis to help kids reduce their anxiety level? “In hypnosis, children in part learn how to relax, mentally and physically,” Zulli says. “In this way, kids learn how to shift their energy from a fight-or-flight mindset to one of balance and peace.”
