Interesting People
Killer Laughter
If you can’t picture yourself laughing about death, read “Almost Family,” a debut novel by Ann Bancroft.
The Land Park writer will have you chuckling along with the characters as they face death from various forms of cancer. But it’s not a cancer book.
“The topic isn’t cancer, it’s about relationships,” says Bancroft, 71, who twice battled cancer. “We all live until we die and, surprise, we’re all going to die. I wanted to make it easier to discuss death, to make people more comfortable with illness and dying, so I tried to use humor. Cancer’s not one thing. You’re still worried about what’s for dinner. You’re still a whole person.”
No Barriers
Empowerment Park beckons like no other local park. Located on Bell Street between Northrup Avenue and Hurley Way, Empowerment Park is designed for all children, including those with disabilities.
“There’s nothing sadder than a kid on the outside of a playground looking in because he’s not able to play. This will change that. This is a barrier-free, all-abilities park, where everyone can play together, side by side,” says Mike Grace, executive director of Sacramento Parks Foundation, the organization behind Empowerment Park (also known as emPOWERment Park).
Construction is set to start in September, with completion in May 2026.
Get Organized
Mitch Weathers saw his multi-language students struggle in school and asked himself one question: What helps students be successful?
Thus began a quest to identify the most significant impacts on academic achievement and success.
The result is Organized Binder, a program that helps teachers create predictability as they help students develop executive function skills.
“If you go class to class and each has wildly different procedures and you’re a multi-language student, that’s a huge cognitive load and mental calories you’re expending just getting through the school day,” Weathers says.
Career Change
Roger Jones has a thicket of trees named for him. It’s called Rawge’s Grove, situated in the Bufferlands natural habitat refuge on the outskirts of the Sacramento Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant in Elk Grove.
Rawge’s Grove—a nod to Jones’ nickname—is part of the 2,150-acre Bufferlands. The grove honors the man who helped create the barrier between the treatment facility and surrounding neighborhoods.
In 1990, when Jones was a young wildlife biologist from UC Davis, he was hired to oversee the area’s habitat restoration.
Heartstrings Connector
Heartstrings Connector Dance theater company raises money for others By Jessica Laskey June 2024 The way Jacob Gutiérrez-Montoya sees it, “my whole life has been about intersections, how paths cross, and what can grow from that.” Gutiérrez-Montoya has...
It’s Only Natural
It’s fitting that the name for Angela Borge’s all-natural bath- and body-care company came from her parents’ garden.
“I had been wanting to start an herbal business, but the names I’d come up with just weren’t connecting,” the Sacramento native says. “Then I was outside at my parents’ house in East Sac and suddenly heard ‘Humble Bee Herbal’ in my head. It was perfect.”
Borge is a devotee of natural skincare, mostly out of necessity. An almond intolerance led her to study herbalism and make her own skincare for years. But it wasn’t until she joined forces with her mom Jeanine, a retired third-grade teacher, when Humble Bee Herbal took off.
