Interesting People
C’mon, Get Happy
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.”
Play On!
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.
Voices Lifted
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.
Helping Others Live Better
Each one can teach one. Just ask Judith Pothier, 74, of Sacramento. She suffered peripheral vision loss from a car crash as a teen, yet as an adult has helped others with visual impairments live better.
Case in point is Pothier’s role as a beta tester on the design and rollout of new software by Hadley, a nonprofit organization that offers support free of charge to people with vision loss. In using the website, Pothier helped find and acquire new ways of adjusting to her visual impairment, which also helped other low-vision users.
Life Of Service
Phil Rios lives by four values: honor, discipline, clean teeth and an even cleaner shave. The last two may seem incongruous, but Rios knows they can be a matter of life and death.
As a combat veteran of the U.S. Army Military Police, Rios was responsible for keeping his squad safe under dangerous conditions in Vietnam, the Persian Gulf and Korea.
Grand Style
There aren’t many coffee table books that combine original artwork, architecture, history and humor, but James Patrick Lane’s new book, “Painting the Grand Homes of California’s Central Valley,” fits the description.
“This is not your standard coffee table book,” the Arden-Arcade artist says of the project he began in 2019. “It’s actually quite rare to find a book like this with paintings instead of photos. Plus, I’ve included painting tips like, here’s how I made the light in the windows. If you’re an artist, you should get a lot from this book.”
