Interesting People
Mystic Mission
The Altar Room is open to the public only on Saturdays. Arriving at the nondescript storefront off 65th Street for the first time, a visitor might think it’s never open.
Tucked away in an industrial building, the lone indicator of the historical occult curiosities shop is a small sign that welcomes the curious.
Shasta Smith owns and curates The Altar Room. Along with its weekend retail sales, the site is a museum of oddities, an educational workshop for the witchy and an event space showcasing the city’s eclectic side.
Found At Last
As a child, Pocket resident Ellen Yee would stare at a photo on her grandparents’ mantel. The image showed a smiling, handsome aviator in a leather flight jacket, goggles perched on his head.
Yee knew nothing about the man except his name. He was her Uncle Yuen Hop.
Yuen Hop was a U.S. Army Air Forces sergeant who disappeared during World War II in 1944, before Yee was born. “At the time, the military only told my grandparents that he and two other airmen were missing in Germany,” Yee says.
Culture Keeper
Bill Cerruti just returned from his annual trip to Italy. It was work and play.
Cerruti and his wife, a native of Lucca, lead tours as part of their work running the Italian Cultural Society, which they founded in 1981.
As a young man, a proud Italian American and East Sacramento native, Cerruti searched for a cultural organization to meet other young Italians and stay in touch with his roots. When the Italian American club system didn’t click with him, he started his own group.
Green Light
Kimberly Cargile is sold on cannabis. As CEO of an East Sacramento dispensary called A Therapeutic Alternative, Cargile spends her days advocating for the long-maligned plant.
“There’s overwhelming positive research (about the benefits of cannabis),” Cargile says. “It’s sad that anybody would let the stigma stop them from advancing science.”
Cargile was a pre-med college student but found herself drawn toward natural medicine. Studies in herbalism, cannabis, yoga, reiki hands-on healing and pharmacology followed.
Self-Made
When Vivian Kerr discovered a memory book from 12th grade at her childhood home in Arden, her answer to the question “what do you want to be?” surprised her.
“It said, ‘I want to be a writer, actor, director and producer,’” Kerr says. “Those are the four things I’m doing now. That’s nuts. I feel very lucky. I’m connected to everything I ever wanted to do.”
Kerr recently released her first feature film, “SCRAP,” which she wrote, produced, directed and starred in. The project culminated years of building confidence in a notoriously unforgiving industry.
New Direction
John Moran is the first male to lead St. Francisc High School in its 85-year history, but his goals transcend gender.
“Of course I want us to be the best all-girls Catholic school, but I also want to extrapolate that to be the best school of any type, period,” he says.
The Brooklyn native plans to achieve excellence by strengthening current offerings at St. Francis while adding new programs that attract students with different backgrounds and interests.
“I want to have something for everyone, and I want each student to have a variety of choices of opportunity to become well-rounded people,” Moran says.
