If there’s one thing Kamika Hebbert knows it’s this: “It doesn’t matter what you come from, you can be the change. Don’t let your negative circumstances be your outcome.”
She could be speaking about herself. Hebbert grew up between foster care and her biological family. Many of her relatives were incarcerated. At age 9, she started writing letters to family members behind bars to provide them with an emotional connection, care packages and even financial support.
Laura Lofgren can’t stop lending her voice to the Sacramento Master Singers. As the group opens its 41st season, Lofgren sings alto and serves as board president.
Her relationship with the nonprofit choir dates from 1990, when Lofgren and husband John auditioned to sing. One year later, they joined the board, Laura as choral liaison and secretary, John as vice president.
“It’s not just a choir, it’s more like an extended family,” says Lofgren, who spent 37 years in education before retiring from the Twin Rivers Unified School District in June. “We all truly care for each other.”
The SMUD Museum of Science and Curiosity is busy with field trips, learning labs, planetarium shows and other activities to inspire students toward careers in science, technology, engineering, arts and math.
Last school year, 24,000 students visited the museum. Executive Director Andrea A. Durham expects more this year. In its mission to build interest in science, Durham says serving as role models is the most important work for museum staff.
“Students don’t pick careers they don’t have any exposure to,” she says. “So, when you ask a 4-year-old what they want to be, there’s a reason they say a policeman or a firefighter or a teacher, because those are they careers they see in their life.”
It’s not often a high-end retail store moves from the Bay Area to the Sacramento area. But the village of Fair Oaks is the new home to Terrestra, a destination for handcrafted home accessories.
After establishing locations in San Francisco and Mill Valley, Terrestra co-founders Amy Satran and Ray Kristof decided to downsize and move their gallery closer to the Sacramento home they purchased six years ago.
Satran and Kristof are a tech couple with backgrounds in multi-media. They met decades ago at Apple and started Terrestra in 2003. Today they consider themselves semi-retired in Fair Oaks Village while overseeing the gallery.
“Amy and I have always been collectors, and I grew up in France and enjoyed it from an early age,” Kristof says.
The green sturgeon is an ancient creature. This “river dinosaur” dates back 220 million years. Today he thrives in local waterways.
The southern green sturgeon spawns in a small segment of the Sacramento River and uses the lower American River for juvenile rearing.
Despite the green sturgeon’s resiliency, the species is listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act.
It started in the Galapagos 20 years ago. The first spay/neuter clinic was on Isabela Island. The first patient was a dog named Luna.
Today, Animal Balance deploys high-volume temporary MASH clinics (Mobile Animal Sterilization Hospitals) in 10 countries, including the United States.
In March, Sacramento hosted its first three-day MASH in partnership with Sacramento County’s Bradshaw Animal Shelter, converting a county-owned building at McClellan Park into a spay/neuter hospital.
