Ainsley’s Angels Inspires Hope

SACRAMENTO REGION, CA (MPG) - Ainsley’s Angels is a national nonprofit organization aimed at servicing the special needs community through their race series, consisting of athlete riders and runners who participate in races across 30 states and over 60 cities.

The inspiration for all this is Ainsley, the daughter of Marine Corps Major Kim and Lori Rossiter. Before turning four, Ainsley was diagnosed with Infantile Neuroaxonal Dystrophy (INAD), an extremely rare terminal illness that slowly causes global paralysis. Most children diagnosed with INAD pass on before reaching ten years of age, as there is no cure or treatment to help slow down this very progressive and terminal disease. Ainsley passed away in 2016 at the age of 13, but not before she completed over 100 races, including nearly 20 half-marathons.

Sacramento’s chapter of Ainsley’s Angels is in its third year, founded and directed by Russ Howell – the organization uses the title “ambassador” rather than chapter president. Howell identifies as a lifelong endurance athlete. He undertook his first 100 mile bike ride at 12, ran track in high school, and stayed in shape in his adult life through a stint in the Army where he was a member of a COLT team deployed to Kosovo. In 2010, Howell and his wife had a son born with serious medical complications and he stopped participating in endurance activities. When his son passed away shortly before his second birthday, Howell got back into running as form of escape and therapy. Running helped him keep centered and deal with grief.

A year later, Howell’s second child was born. As a baby shower gift, his family pitched in and got him a very nice running stroller. From then on, Howell, now an accountant, put in twenty to thirty miles a week with his son. Time passed, and eventually his son grew too big to fit in strollers, but Howell was eager to keep up with his running. One day, Howell came across an article on Ainsley's Angels in Running World, and sent an email to the president of the organization. Sacramento has a vibrant running vibe, with many races in the area, he told her. It would be a great area for the organization to expand and a perfect way for him to take his running to the next level and give something back.

Howell started the new Sacramento chapter from ground zero and began fundraising, recruiting members, reaching out to race directors, and getting the Ainsley’s Angels name out to local hospitals and care centers. Thanks to Howell’s connections within the racing community and the people he met while caring for his first son’s health complications, the group was immediately accepted and progress quickly snowballed. Today there are close to 200 members, ranging from as young as five years old to two adult riders who are in their thirties. The group has also raised enough money to purchase eleven racing chairs for its riders to keep and use with their families.

“Ainsley’s Angels taught me that you don't need to run, or even walk, to be an athlete,” says adult rider Emily Crosgrove. “What's more important is having the will to get out there.”

The organization provides a 100% free service to the disabled community, which is no easy feat – racing chairs can coast nearly $5,000.  There are three levels of chairs which vary depending on the age, size, and disability of the rider. Every chair has three wheels and a fixed front wheel, which provides stability and keeps the chairs from going off course.

“The smiles, the celebration, the joy, that’s what it’s all about,” says Howell. “To see that level of excitement for people that would never be able to experience a race, showing up to the something like the California International marathon (one of Ainsley’s partners) surrounded by 10,000 amazing athletes. It takes them out of their world.”

Sacramento’s Angels are set to run their first ultra-marathon in November, the 200-mile Napa RAGNAR relay that runs from SF up the coast and back down to finish in Napa. Six athletes and two riders will participate.

“There's no better feeling than the wind in my hair as I glide through a sea of fast moving bodies, encouraging stagers to never give up,” Crosgrove added. “If myself and my team could be out there on the road, then anything is possible.”

CARMICHAEL, CA (MPG) - A five-summer mission at the California Montessori Project (Carmichael) has festooned the old La Sierra High School campus with five murals. The last was recently unveiled to reveal a dazzling pageant of California history.

Explains artist/teacher Noah Kocina: “The work reflects two significant events in our history – the establishment of Spanish missions and the rush to find gold.” Over summer vacations, Fair Oaks resident Kocina completed this and previous tableaux that total 2,500 square feet in area. Reflecting utilitarian 1960s school design, his canvases were originally concrete classroom abutments.

The Montessori Project began leasing teaching space from Carmichael Recreation and Park District in 2019. Kocina and director of school operations Gary Bowman beheld blank concrete slabs and envisioned opportunities for beautification – and for enhancing the school’s community presence.  Bowman suggested a series of murals and commissioned Kocina to get painting during summer teaching breaks. “I’d start at 6 am,” says the artist. “Mornings were completely quiet, and painting felt like meditation. I’d work six or seven hours, until it got so hot my paint dried before I could apply it.”

Kochina’s designs represent Montessori philosophy and five cultural elements of school studies: botany, zoology, geometry, geography and history. Before he began painting, one lone wall already bore a painted Stars and Stripes.  CRPD administrators okayed his murals as long as the nation’s symbol remained. “We were fine with that,” says Kocina. “But I wanted the flag grander and larger. I incorporated it in my geometry mural – there’s a lot of geometry in the design of a flag.” His botany mural centers around a huge California poppy. A 36-foot trout dominates his zoology design. The muralist’s big view of geography shows the solar system in relationship to Planet Earth. He plans a separate future work illustrating native American life before missionaries and miners arrived.

Though Kocina was paid for his five-summer project, the tableaux are still works of passion. “At first, I tried to keep my art simple,” he recalls. “I began with only one person in my geometry design. By the final mural, I was working on an epic. I used as many people, animals and symbols as I could. Every man, woman or child in all five works is a likeness of someone affiliated to this school.”

“Planning the last mural, was like casting a play,” he says. “I had to find 23 people with face and body types to match monks, miners, a Mexican senorita and the goddess Minerva from our State seal.” One of Kocina’s daughters became his goddess and even constructed body armor for reference photos. Near Minerva’s spear-point, the artist himself peeps Kilroy-like over the California state line. “Hardly anybody’s noticed me yet,” he says. “But I’m there as a final signature. I like to conceal objects in my painting to give the kids an extra layer of interest when they’re poring over it. My face is an extra Easter egg.”

To view the Montessori murals, park at 5330 Gibbons Drive, Carmichael and enter playing fields via fence gates. Learn more about Noah Kocina’s art on Instagram at n_kocina.

SACRAMENTO REGION, CA (MPG) - A baker’s dozen is thirteen as the cake enthusiasts who attended Cake4Kids’ orientation at Arcade library on Saturday, August 18 know. This second orientation in the Sacramento region for the Sunnyvale-based nonprofit drew bakers of all backgrounds and ages hailing from Carmichael, Arden Arcade, Rancho Cordova, Elk Grove, Rancho Murieta and beyond to learn more about Cake4Kids.

Mary Barnes, Cake4Kids’ Sacramento ambassador, led the hour long program. Barnes is a Sacramento native who first discovered the group when she lived in San Francisco. When she returned to Sacramento to pursue her legal career she wanted to bring the program with her and spoke about why she chose the eastern part of Sacramento.

“We thought about logistics,” she said, “An area where there were a good number of residential areas to pull volunteers from.”

This area, she explained, is close to freeways, homes, several nonprofits serving the demographic that Cake4Kids supports – homeless, recent immigrants, those in foster care, and victims of human trafficking – and it doesn’t cost money for parking so that left downtown and midtown out of the running.

“It is supported by Carmichael, east Sacramento, Sac State students, and ARC students. We thought it was a good location to start because of all of those factors.”

In addition to being the nonprofit’s Sacramento ambassador and tackling the job of finding volunteers, contacting agencies, and filling requests, Barnes, like other volunteers, works full time. She is also a volunteer baker and delivered the first cake in Sacramento to Opening Doors, an organization that serves individuals and families escaping human trafficking and refugees new to the area. She baked a vegan banana cake for a boy and decorated the cake with a racecar theme, complete with toy cars atop a protective layer of marzipan, and topped with vegan chocolate frosting.

“We have several requests for vegan cakes from this organization.  We’re challenging our bakers right away,” said Barnes, adding that all requests had been claimed and filled since the first orientation in July with twenty attendees.

In 2010, Cake4Kids was born. Only thirteen cakes were baked and delivered that year. Fast forward eight years when more than 10,000 cakes have been baked and delivered by volunteers as far south as San Diego. The nonprofit also serves Fresno, Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Mateo, and five other California counties. Each cake is prepared from scratch especially for the child, decorated, packaged in a cake box, and delivered to the requesting agency. Although volunteers never meet the children, they often receive thanks from the children or, in some cases, from the parents or caregivers.

Before volunteer bakers can claim cakes, they must attend a mandatory orientation where they’ll learn about the organization, the demographic served, logistics, and resources. One of the volunteer benefits is that each baker may take cake decorating classes and be reimbursed for up to $100.00 each year. The ability to be a fabulous decorator is not a requirement, although some cakes are quite lavish. Each cake, she added, must have the child’s name.

During the orientation, Barnes said that 60,000 children are in foster care and only 5% between 15 and 18 years of age are adopted in California. Nearly 30 percent of children are homeless in the United States, and Barnes referenced the thousands of U.S. based human trafficking cases annually. These are some of the at-risk children Cake4Kids serves.

Julie Eades, the organization’s executive director, attended the inaugural orientation in July and said in a telephone interview that, “When you’re on or near the poverty line, a cake might not be the thing you choose to spend your money on. We talk about the fact that these children get moved from home to home and sometimes they don’t get any birthday celebrations. Not because nobody cares. It’s just one thing extra that people caring for them have to think about.”

Cake4Kids serves children and young adults up to the age of 24 and Eades said that some children as old as twenty have never had a cake before the one baked and delivered by a volunteer. She also said that the older children are extremely appreciative of the cake made just for them. Everyone should feel special one day a year.

Men, women, and children 16 years and older interested in baking cakes and bringing joy to a child should sign up to be a volunteer on the organization’s website. Sacramento orientations will be held through December at Arcade and Arden-Dimick libraries. The goal is to have 100 volunteers on board. On October 20 and December 22, orientations will be held at Arcade library on Marconi from 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. On November 10, Arden-Dimick will host from 12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. The September orientation date and location has not been set. For additional information, visit www.cake4kids.org.

Jenson Brooksby to Compete in US Tennis Open

SACRAMENTO REGION, CA (MPG) - National Junior Men’s Tennis Champion Jenson (J.T.) Brooksby barely recalls the first time he played tennis. “I was four years old,” he says. “I knew I liked grabbing a racquet and hitting a ball.”

“Around nine, I started playing in tournaments. I enjoyed other sport but most of all, I loved the solo aspect of tennis. The results are solely up to you. By the time I was six, my parents and I were travelling for tournaments. I loved seeing new places and I started to think about tennis as a career.”

One match at a time, that dream is coming true. The 17-year-old Carmichael athlete recently beat 256 others to the top of his national division. Beyond trophies, the victor’s big prize is to cross racquets with some of the world’s best players when he debuts as a “wild card” entry in the US Open Tennis Championships this month. On the hallowed courts of Flushing Meadows, the teenager will experience international competition at its toughest. “It’s an amazing feeling,” he says. “I’ve never played at this level before. This is what I’ve been training hard for – for a very long time.”

Jenson has come far from pre-school tuition at Arcade’s Rio del Oro Racquet Club. Early regarded as a prodigy, he’s had five lessons a week since the age of seven. These days, he plays four hours of tennis daily and works out in a gym for another hour. To accommodate the regime, he’s been home-schooled since sixth grade. “Learning at home teaches you to manage your time,” says the student whose homework gets done in airports and hotel rooms. “You miss out on the social aspect of school, but I still interact with other tennis players – male and female.” Dating, he considers, can wait till college.

Following offers from many top US schools, he recently accepted a full athletic scholarship from Texas Christian University. For now, graduating high school is a priority. Jenson is a straight-A student who learns online for four hours a day; his other classroom is a hard court at Arden Hills Resort, Carmichael. Here Joseph Gilbert – regarded as one of the top junior coaches in the US – runs the JMG Academy for 40 teenagers who aspire to play college and pro tennis.

“Jenson is one of the most competitive kids I’ve ever taught, says Gilbert. “His ability to focus for long periods sets him apart. There’s an innocent side to him: he’s good-hearted and always wants to do the right thing. Off-court, he’s laid back; once he’s on-court, his intensity takes over. In Flushing, I just want him to soak up the atmosphere, enjoy the moment and have this level of competition as a consistent goal.”

Coach Gilbert will accompany Jenson to New York. Anesthesiologist dad Glen Brooksby and equestrian mom Tania will also join the pilgrimage. “My parents are a huge part of my dream,” says their only child. “For so many years of tournaments, mom and dad have traveled with me. They’re at least as important to my success as my coach. Every match I’ve won, they’ve won it with me.”

Along with his opportunity to face international professionals next week, Jenson will also compete in the US Open junior championships. As a “wild card” entry to the main event, he does not yet know whom he will meet on court. “Whoever it is, I’m ready to test myself,” he predicts. “I’m not focused on the results. I’m focused on improving my game.”

The US Open Tennis Championships run from August 27 to September 9.