Interesting People
No Kidding
After her first son was born, Sabrina Nishijima hated how much time she spent on her phone. She wasn’t idly scrolling through Facebook or laughing at memes; she was looking for fun things to do with her child in Sacramento. Even after she’d stumble across an activity or two, she’d feel indecisive and frustrated.
Bright Idea
Michael Sestak’s light-bulb moment was a literal one. After years as a pastry chef, Sestak left the sweet life behind to start a shiny new career in lighting design.
“Pastry is about presenting the end of the dinner with something showy, fun and creative,” says Sestak, who studied at City College of San Francisco’s Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management Program.
She Makes House Calls
Dr. Caron Houston glanced at her watch as she crossed the empty parking lot to her car. It was 8 o’clock. Somehow she’d put in another 12-hour day without realizing it. By the time she got home, it would nearly be her kids’ bedtime. She worried for a moment that the new nanny was going to burn out, but she pushed the thought away as she turned the car radio to a local jazz station. “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” was playing, and the image of bluebirds flying over the rainbow struck a chord with Houston
A Holistic Approach
When Sacramentans think of their city, they think of farmers markets, farm-to-fork restaurants or the American River Bike Trail. Perhaps one of the last things people think of is the lifelong effect poverty can have on local schoolchildren. As president and CEO of United Way California Capital Region, Stephanie Bray is looking to bring about change through the new Square One Project.
Helping the Forgotten
Marlene von Friederichs-Fitzwater was no stranger to the repercussions of a cancer diagnosis—nor to the feeling of isolation that comes along with it. But when she met Anna, a homeless woman who had been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, she realized that the sense of isolation dug even more deeply into terminally ill people who had no home or family.
Girl Power
The Girl Scouts of America are about more than cookies and campfires, as Linda Farley, the CEO of Girl Scouts Heart of Central California, will tell you. Girl Scouts are go-getters, innovators, risk takers and leaders—or G.I.R.L.s, an acronym coined by the national organization to describe its membership.
