Meet Your Neighbor - Jackie the House Elf

Who are you and what do you do?

I am Jackie the House Elf. My official job is to watch the children and report to Santa. I really just like getting into stuff.

What do you love about San Leandro?

I love all the local businesses and their decorated windows, it gets me in the Holiday spirit!

Final Words of Wisdom?

Be nice to each other in the parking lot.

See more of Jackie here 

Meet Your Neighbor - Lesley Christiansen and Joseph Alan McCalip

Who are you and what do you do?

I'm Lesley Christiansen and currently I am 100% and advocate for my youngest daughter, Audrey, who was diagnosed this summer with Autism.

I'm Joseph, I'm a photographer and a cinematographer and I specialize in weddings and I do a lot of photo shoots around the community.

 What do you love about San Leandro?

Lesley:  I think one of the things I fell in love with besides the community was when I lived in downtown San Leandro, I loved the vibe and how there were all these different events happening all the time, this was about 7 years ago, so now it's evolved and continuing to grow and I like that, I like it a lot.  I feel like there are more younger crowds moving in and it's a really hip place to be. 

Joseph:  When I was in high school  and college, a lot of people would go to San Francisco, Berkeley or Oakland and bring back those cultures influences to San Leandro. When I moved here I thought I want to be here for a while. After having Children you start think about where you want to be, what city you want to live in, this has always been a good choice (San Leandro).  The neighborhood we live in now has a very strong community base, a lot of parents that have kids hang out and get to know each other, I think that's important. You don't want to live in a neighborhood where you don't connect with your neighbors.

Lesley, let's talk about your FashionStylista Web site, When did this start?

Lesley:  It started at a very young age, one of the first gifts I bought my Mom was a pair of earrings, I think I was about 5 or 6 at the Oakland flea market . Before I got into personal styling I was a legal assistant for over 10 years. I got bored a lot. One day the idea just popped in my head to shop for someone. I asked an attorney, a friend if I could to that. She gave me her whole closet , can you redo my whole closet, Yes I will do it for free. This is the deal, If you love it and get complements refer me to people. People loved it, she threw a party, invited her friends. I came in, I told them what was in, what was out. That was the start of my personal styling business.

How can people find you?

Lesley:  I have a You-tube channel and my website  (Plus facebook )

I love the energy in the videos

Lesley:  Thank you. I try to put the contents out there for everyone, I try to base it on my personal problems that I have had with fashion. Being short, not really tall not everything fits me the way it should. I feel out there a lot of my clients have the same type of issues.

One of the things I always try to put out there is fashion is a lot more than what is on the outside and what dresses you. It always represents what is going on inside at the moment. Always.

There are always wonderful photos and the videos are well made, I am sure you (Joseph) have a lot to do with that?

Joseph: I wish we had more time to produce more of those, it's a great thing. We have separate businesses but we can mesh them together to help each other out. She helps me dress better at weddings, she helps me with business tactics. I was just an artist and wanting to please people. Her skills are in business and mine as an artist.

 Joseph's Art

Lesley:  We Complement each other

Joseph: The photos, the blog and the videos. I always think we can make something look a little better (relating to video quality).

Lesley:  We complement each other, It's funny how life works out. He definitely is part of the photography for my business and the videos. I think I complement him with my business mind and the background that I had with law, agreements and trademark, copyright and all that stuff.

Your photography has morphed into cinematography, Your videos are beautiful. Was that a natural progression for you?

Joseph:  I had a camera that she bought for me. I would take my daughters to the park and take pictures, then I started clicking buttons, Oh, this shoots video.  I had never shot video with a camera that was as great quality as the DSLR.

 I started having ideas  with what I could do. At that time I already had a business with my photos, I wasn't doing wedding photography yet, just family portraits.  When I got my first wedding I actually shot a video for them before their wedding that they showed at their wedding. After that I realized that creating a story that I saw through my eyes. I could make a great connection and not bore people. Make it exciting and energetic and draw people in.

Joseph Alan Productions

They seem personal

That's what happened with the video. These important milestones  in our lives. They are things that shouldn't be let go or just heard once. I was really driven that  people have a video they can pull out, invite friends over "Watch this quick video of my wedding". Something that lasts.

They are beautiful, not like someone has stood in the back with a camcorder

Lesley:  It's a film, it's a beautiful film.

It's funny , our first thing was photography and we were trying to find our niche. Joe had lost his job and we didn't know what to do. We thought let's just use your natural talents and got into photography, one thing lead to another. Connections play a big role, meeting people. We met some people that did video, it was an interest to him something that he had an itching to do. Next thing you know he was doing it for himself.

I know you are both involved in your school. You just did a photo shoot with part of the proceeds shared with the school.

Joseph:  That was my wife's idea. I like to share what I love to do, I love being involved in my daughters' school in any way that I can. There are a lot of families here, let's do photo shoot, it's fall time, people love to  share their family photos during Christmas.

Lesley:  I am on the PTA board for Roosevelt Elementary School. The idea just popped and I pitched it to the president, she shared it with board and the board said lets go. It started last year . 15% of everything we make on the shoot goes to the Roosevelt PTA.

The PTA serves a great purpose, I didn't realize how much the PTA does until I became a member and sat there at the meetings. They buy laptops, computers, iPads, field trips and even helping with salary for teacher assistants. It's amazing, so why not give back to that. It's our children who benefit.

Where do you see your businesses going in the future?

Lesley:  Honestly, I am not too sure. Right now I am 100% an advocate for my child and her education. She has been diagnosed with autism. I have been trying to figure out what I want to do with that. It takes so much of my time I have not been able to put too much time into my fashion business. I may morph those together . Bring it together and see who out there can relate and start following me. It's not all about fashion, there are tons of different things I do. I am a business partner (with Joseph), I am a mother, I love fashion and style. I'm thinking of bring them together and being more of a blogger and seeing what happens after that.

Click to read Lesleys Blog article on these changes in her life MY DAUGHTER HAS AUTISM AND IT’S NOT IN THIS SEASON!

Joseph: With weddings, photography and the future I hope to build a staff. It can be really tough alone. I want to document what is happening here in San Leandro in any way that I can. I am talking to a lot of new businesses that come here. Help them shoot the right video to promote their business. I have a friend we are working on a video right now that is getting pitched to A&E for a reality show, their t-shirt company is a different thread (laughs) . They do gorilla marketing , I hope they get picked up. More videos, maybe commercials for some businesses here. More corporate.

Any words of wisdom?

Joseph:  With God all things are possible. We could not get where we are if we were not faith based. We have prayed a lot about things that we should be doing, ideas, new ways of handling our business, where we should move next. It's always here in San Leandro. Faith Driven.

Lesley :  I have one quote from Theodore Roosevelt "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are"

Thank you guys

Meet Your Neighbor - Michelle and Leo Sheridan

Who are you and what do you do?

Michelle and Leo Sheridan and we are the president and vice-president of San Leandro Girls Softball.

What do you love about San Leandro?

We love the tight knit community,  anything you want to do,  people you want to know, you see them at one sport you see them at another, you see them in the coffee shop. It's just wonderful to have such an tight knit feel to a community.

Girls softball is a brand new league, why was that need?

We have an 8 year old daughter we have been coaching her in soccer and in softball and we have seen there are no girls sports in San Leandro. We have had tons of interest. People came up to us as say "Why don't we have girls sports in San Leandro?" We totally agree, why don't we? So we decided to start a league.

When will it start, When can you sign up and is there a Facebook page and Web site.

LEO - Facebook is https://www.facebook.com/Sanleandrogirlssoftball and website is http://www.sanleandrogirlssoftball.com/

MICHELLE - Registration is open now, it opened on Friday. Opening day is March 4th 2016. Girls can register online until the middle of January. We will also have 2 or 3 registration sites available.

What are the Ages?

LEO - Girls from 4 to 14 of all playing abilities.

And a travel team?

San Leandro is the home of the Nitro. We are excited to do a competitive team. Usually competitive teams are after rec. So rec teams first, then have tryouts for the Nitro to bring a competitive team to San Leandro.

Fields Yet?

MICHELLE - No official fields yet, we have an unofficial home.

LEO - The city has been working with us and is helping to find us a home.

You are also very involved in the your girls school

MICHELLE - I am PTO president of James Monroe Elementary, Leo is Dads Club President. We have been doing that since our daughter was in kindergarten. Leo is also on school board.

LEO - We are very involved in the community.

MICHELLE - We just want to make our community better, we want to make it better for our kids, specifically girls because we do not have enough activities for them.

LEO - In San Leandro the Diamonds are dominated by boys, we don't have an equitable share of girls on these fields.

MICHELLE  - We want to give the Girls softball.

You also work in San Leandro?

MICHELLE - I work for Bank of the West, I am a security investigator. I have worked for Bank of the west for 15 years. Leo works at San Leandro Color so we are completely into the san Leandro community

Any words of Wisdom?

MICHELLE - It's super important for everybody to get involved. You hear in other communities that people like to complain, they want changes but they are not willing to man up and to really get involved. You have got to get involved, that is the only way you can make change. That's what Leo and I practice and preach.

Thanks you so much

Meet Your Neighbor - Lord Blood-Rah (Frank Wallace-Ailsworth)

Who are you and what do you do?

     My full name is Frank Wallace-Ailsworth.  I'm 52 and was born and raised here in San Leandro.  I'm married to my wife Chris and have two sons, Gavin, who lives in Boston and is the drummer for popular art rock band Bent Knee, and Ben, who lives at home and teaches drums and bass as well as performing all over the Bay Area and recording with musicians like Jay Lane formerly of Primus.

    

     For the last 6 years I have hosted Horror and Sci-Fi films at various venues all over the Bay Area.  I started at the Chouinard Winery in Castro Valley in 2009.  My wife and I are close friends with the winemaker, Damian Chouinard, and his family.  Damian was interested in showing movies at the winery, specifically older genre films.  We put a show together with someone else hosting and, though the show came off well and was well attended, there were some quirks that made Damian not want to rehire the host.

     The next day, Damian, my wife and I were sitting in my kitchen having a glass of wine when he said he wanted to do a series of movie shows every September, but didn't want to use the previous host.  I said I really didn't know of anyone else to suggest, whereupon my wife Chris turned to me and said "Why the hell don't you do it?"

I had no answer, so the following year in '09 I began hosting the shows under the title Lord Blood-Rah's Nerve Wrackin' Theatre. 

     I became Lord Blood-Rah, the High Lord of Geekdom, (a self proclaimed title):  A proud Geek who loves nothing so much as sharing these great old classic and craptacular horror and sci-fi films with like minded Geeks. 

     This last September marked the sixth year of Lord Blood-Rah's Nerve Wrackin' Theatre at the Chouinard Winery which runs every September weekend. 

     Soon after, I began hosting shows at other venues across the Bay Area including The Bal in San Leandro, The Parkway in Oakland, The Rheem in Moraga and, most recently, the Peirano Winery in Lodi.

    

     Three years ago, I was approached by Sujoy Sarkar of KCTH Comcast 27 out of Chabot College to do a TV show, basically a Creature Features type horror host show.  I dove in and began filming episodes on a set I built in my home. 

     Just a few months later, a good friend of mine in Peoria, Il. Bryan Wolford, who works at WAOE My59 TV, said their station wanted to run a horror host show and to send a sample episode for consideration.  I met Bryan while submitting material for his horror themed podcast Drunken Zombie. 

     I sent a link to an episode on Youtube and within a couple of hours I was told they wanted to run the series!  Shortly after, two other mid-west stations. WISE MyTV Fort Wayne in In. and WHTV My18 in Lansing Mi. picked up the series.

     You can find episodes of my show, as well as the first appearance of Lord Blood-Rah at the ever at the Chouinard Winery from 2009 on youtube.com/lordbloodrah.

    

     My connection to Bryan also lead to me hosting the Drunken Zombie International Film Festival in Peoria for the last four years.  It's an independent horror film festival that features submissions of short and feature length horror films from all over the world.

    

     Lord Blood-Rah's Nerve Wrackin' Theatre is now in it's 5th Season and airs locally on KCTH Comcast 27 Friday Nights at 10:30pm and Saturday nights at Midnight, and on Comcast 28 10pm Wednesday nights and 12:30am Saturday Nights as well as the afore mentioned mid-west stations.

     The show can also be found on various online horror host sites such as Kreepykastle.com and The Vortexx at horrorhost.net.

      I have also made numerous pop culture and comic book convention appearances and next year will be the Master of Ceremonies at the 2016 Con-volution Convention at the Hyatt Regency SFO, as well as presenting a panel on the connection between Tiki Culture and Monsters at the 2016 Tiki Oasis Convention in San Diego.

     This Halloween Night I'll be hosting the Werewolves of London Halloween Party at Trader Vic's in Emeryville.  We're having a Bay Area's Best Werewolf Contest with some great prizes supplied by Trader Vic's and myself!

     All this and a day job make life quite busy!

What do you love about San Leandro?

     As I said, I was born and raised here.  I love the convenience of living here.  Everything is quite easily accessible and there is a great small town vibe to the town, even though San Leandro has grown quite a bit since I was a kid here!

Tell me about the BAL?

I did a series of shows at the Bal theatre featuring classic films.  We showed the original Frankenstein and Dracula there, an evening of Gamera films, Psycho, a tribute to Creature Features, etc.  The shows were great fun and drew a small, tight attentive audience, but the financial realities of the Bal at the time, owned by Dan Dillman, made continuing there impossible.  We just were not drawing the numbers he needed to see to make it viable.

     The first CreaturesCon, the Creature Features convention, was held at the Bal.  It was a great success, but even at that first event we could feel that CreatureCon was outgrowing the venue.  CreaturesCon now is a part of the Big Wow Comic Book Convention which next year will morph into the Silicon Valley ComicCon.

     The Bal looks to be doing primarily music now.  I may perhaps approach Dan again with a pitch for a show, but with the TV show and other live shows lined up, it's hard to tell when.

Finishing Words of Wisdom

     To quote the great Bob Wilkins of Creature Features, "Watch Horror Films, Keep America Strong!"

Meet Your Neighbor - Tom Blinn

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Tom Blinn and I am a retired teacher and businessman and I work in a youth program in Oakland.  My spare time goes to the San Leandro Historical Railroad Society.

Very Cool.  What do you love about San Leandro?

I just love it because they (the City of San Leandro) are so open to new ideas and they are really supportive of us as a railroad museum but also our approach into the schools in training kids on how to be safe around railroad tracks.

There was something fairly recently when somebody got hit in San Leandro on the railroad tracks.

We generally get involved when there is an accident and we go to the schools and talk to the kids, and sometimes the counselors will get involved, but we are part of a larger organization called Operation Lifesaver which is all around the United States and was started by Engineers in 1949.  We have thousands of people that are presenters, like myself, and we go to schools to speak.  On October 14 we will be presenting to the 6^th grade classes at John Muir School here is San Leandro.

Oh, very cool!  Now you guys have your museum at Thrasher Park.  The building that you are housed in has a little bit of history.  Please tell us about that.

The building we are in was built in 1898 and it was built with heartwood grade redwood, full dimension so a 2X4 is a 2X4!  The building sat on the corner of Davis St. and the railroad tracks for a long time.  It was 22 years ago that we moved it over to Thrasher Park.  We bought it from the railroad.  We had enough money to move it and the City of San Leandro allowed us to place it at Thrasher Park.  We sold it to the City and we lease it back from them on a 20 years lease.  We generally have 2000-3000 people coming in every other month so we have a lot of community involvement.  Most of our visitors are young people.  Some kids don’t have a long span of attention but around trains they do!  So for parents, sometimes the worst part of the visit is trying to take their kids home because the kids want to stay and they cry. 

Right!

But we have a museum, we have a HO scale display and we have an outdoor display for larger trains.  We also have an area just for the kids.  They can go run trains, they can crash them and do anything they want!  They have fun doing that.

You do special Halloween and holiday events?

Yes, we have a special Halloween event on 10/27.  We will have trains with Halloween cars on it and the whole place will be decorated up!  We really look for kids to participate and they will have a great time

.

Great.  What are your normal hours of operation?

Saturday mornings starting about 9:30am until about 1pm.  On Tuesday nights we are open 7:30pm until 9:30pm.  We have about 35 members and we are all very avid about trains.  Sometimes we ask ourselves why we like trains and we don’t know but we really like trains!  (Laughs).

That’s wonderful!  My son and I have visited and we really loved it.  Do you have any last words of wisdom?

Well, our passion is to our trains but even greater than that is that people are not hurt by trains.  A lot of people don’t give enough attention to trains and the tracks and always be aware that the train can come at any time.  We want no one to be hurt.

Thank you for your time today Tom.

(thanks to Patricia Minnis for Transcribing the interview)

Meet Your Neighbor - Paul Francisco

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Paul Francisco, I am an athletic trainer and therapist. I also coach my daughters under nine soccer team.

What do you love about San Leandro?

I love San Leandro's location. It's proximity to San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and Silicon Valley. Having BART is a huge benefit that many towns do not have.

Words of wisdom?

Patience is a virtue

Thanks Coach!

Meet your Neighbor - Marilyn Pluth

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Marylin Pluth live in San Leandro I’m a homemaker in the process looking for a job haven’t worked for 4-5 years. I’ve been staying home and taking care of my daughter so now its time to get back to work. I like to garden and to get involved with the school. I seem to be very interested in what goes on in the City of San Leandro because I’ve been a resident here for probably 25 years and I’ve seen the changes and I’m happy with how the city is progressing.

What do you love about San Leandro?

 I like this town because it gives you that small town feeling but its in the middle of the bay area and close to everything. From San Jose to up north Marin its really a great place to live and I’ve grown up in the area all my life, I’m from San Jose actually and I’m married my husbands name is Don my daughters name is Michelle and she is 12. 

Bought our first house on Begeir Ave and then Lee avenue and then on Brie so the time spent here we’ve been pretty happy, nobody really knows about it I mean it's starting to change a little bit but it's been a really pleasant place to live and as the years have gone by and I’ve gotten to know the people I basically feel like there is an interesting community here.

Fairmont Ridge on 7/30/15 by Marylin Pluth

People are warm and friendly and yet there are some very strong political view points and I want to say they’re conservative yet somewhat liberal. I find that I meet interesting people here that are very attuned to the community and want to help the community and either I gravitate towards that or you know there’s just a lot of people like that.

One of the things recent has been the “black lives matter” project and this town has its interesting moments about that, I’m finding its very interesting to be involved in that and to see the reaction of the people in the community, there’s a lot of openness but there’s a lot of.. like everywhere there is a lot of people with concerns and backlash to the black lives matter movement.  I’m a pretty down the middle of the road person I just am trying to see what’s fair for everybody and what’s best for everybody and I find it interesting that I’ve joined something like this because I’ve got enough things to do in my life but it just means a lot to me. I would like to break this barrier between blacks and whites. Having conversations and discussing what’s really going on and make resolve it somehow or I don’t know just to start having conversations about it. I think this town can handle it.

They are allowing a pot distributor to move in which I am happy and surprised, I am glad that they are open minded. The city council has really changed over the 25 years I have lived here.

 The first 10 years I lived here people asked me where San Leandro was, I had never heard of it growing up in San Jose it's not just a town that is on the radar. Now it's going somewhere.

San Leandro is just a pleasant place to be, we have bought 3 different houses here, we could have moved away and tried Berkeley or somewhere else, but we like it here.

Daughters School

She has been going to the schools in San Leandro but now she is going to a charter school in Oakland. Its just opened up last year its an interesting school because its full of technology, its basically everything is done on the computer online, its set up on a google class room situation. Google has really zeroed in on how to create this classroom world for students and teachers and its really interesting. It’s a lot like a corporate office would work, yet these kids have mastered the use of computers within a years time really well. From the time they’ve started until now is incredible they know more than us now.  

Sunset on eight, twenty-one, twenty-fifteen

A natural laser light show. Fairmont Ridge 7/30/15

You take a lot of photos and you post them on This is San Leandro, thank you.

I don't know what got me into it. I took film in college, communication and broadcast video. I have always enjoyed photography. These camera, these phones make it so easy I am amazed at some of the pictures I get myself. My brother-in-law said that I have an eye for things. I was happy to hear that. I see the sun setting and go, Oh, I have got to get in the car go somewhere and find a location. I make the excuse of walking the dog, but I am trying to get to the sun. The formation and the clouds we have been getting, maybe the fire unfortunately has had the skies really nice. I keep looking up and going Wow, look at that.

Are they all taken on your phone?

They are all on my Samsung phone, every single one. I never really do anything to the photo to change contrast or the brightness I might crop it. but usually its left the way it is.

This is one of my favorite images, tell me about it?

This was up on Fairmont Ridge, I go up there a lot and take pictures. There is this bench that is all by itself. My daughter and I were walking the dog, I was just slow, I wasn't keeping up with them, I saw them sit down, then the sun came out through the clouds I thought it was so great. The camera darkened the landscape, it came out perfect.

I love the mood.

I really appreciate your comments and the opportunity to showcase the photos.

Thanks for being out and taking so many photos, they are not just of Fairmont Ridge, you go everywhere

I try to, I keep saying where do I go next. I keep saying I should try something other than landscapes, but it's that that captures my attention. I was at the marina last night, I forget there are boats there, you forget those area if you don't hang out there. It really was pretty.

You have a luck dog!

I guess so, he enjoys it... I always bring a girlfriend along too

Final quote or words of wisdom?

I think the time has come for this town to become more progressive (with technology and our policies), we need to be careful in having his happen in a way that benefits the community.  Make sure the progression benefits the haves and the have not's. We are a mixed society in San Leandro, we need to keep that.

Meet Your Neighbor - Morgan Mack-Rose

Who are you and what do you do?

I am Morgan Mack- Rose, I am currently the executive director for the San Leandro Education Foundation

What do you love about San Leandro?

We moved here because of the house prices. Then you fall in love with the people, it really is the people the diversity of the community.  I love that it is a small enough town that you can get things done and that local government is responsive. I love that it is not cookie cutter. We have distinct neighborhoods with distinct architecture and I feel like it's really vibrant.

You were on the school board and now on SLED.

I started getting involved in San Leandro schools before my daughter was even in schools. I am a real proponent for public education. What was happening in our neighborhood school is a lot of people were leaving it and we felt the more people that left the school the more disparity that created. So myself and a handful of other families rallied around the school. Then in 2008 I was asked to run for the school board which was a little earlier than I had intended to do, as I had a 2 and 6 year old at the time. I ran and I got on. The  first thing I had to do at my first meeting was cut 2 1/2 million dollars, so I came right when the big economic crisis was hitting our school. For 4 years all we did was cut, cut, cut, which is why I didn't want to run again. I felt like I was doing Sacramento's dirty work. There were discretionary  funds available but there was not much choice or influence. It wasn't supporting youth the way I envisioned supporting youth.

I ran for city council but I did not win, that actually ended up being a good thing, I am finding that the further I get from elected politics the more I fall in love with San Leandro. It's so easy to get wrapped up in the politics, when ultimately it's not about that, it's about the individual relationship.

I had worked with SLED. In 2014 I was brought on as their first executive director. I had worked with them prior when I was on the school board. I really felt fortunate that I was selected for their ED position. I continue to work with people at city hall, people in the schools and in the community. I feel like am in an ideal situation. I feel like what I am doing is really impacting youth in the way that I thought it would if I was on the school board.

Explain a little bit what SLED is. What SLED does and the event they have coming up  next week?

It was founded in 2008 by a group of parents who saw that we were having all these beautiful building built with bond money, at the same time that all these programs were being cut because of economics. Other wealthier communities in the county had education foundations, because they had ED foundations they were able to tap into grant money and corporate money. San Leandro needs that. We  needed an organization that supports all of the schools, not just one or two, not just sports not just music. That supports every kid K through 12 at all 12 school sites. They worked very methodically for a good 6 years before they had enough support to bring on an executive director. Since that time things are shifting, the money is different. What we are finding and how we are realigning ourselves is instead of providing just cash assistance we become a conduit for foundations, businesses and individuals to support schools.

We are finding that is not just about the money, It's also about the people and how to we engage San Leandrians in our schools in a positive way. Ultimately what kids need are caring adults. It takes money to run volunteer programs, we still need to raise money, but we raise money for specific programs.

We have 3 focus areas, Positive youth development which is providing programs that help kids become adults that you want to live next door to, compassionate caring adults. Then we do STEAM enrichment we are supporting hands on learning, technology and science, one thing we did this summer was bring a girls robotics camp for FREE to 30 middle school girls, we also did it for boys. We support outdoor education overnight science field trip for 5th graders. Our big project right now is creating opportunities for volunteers in our school. We will bringing on a volunteer coordinator. The schools don't have the capacity to recruit, manage and acknowledge volunteers. Sometimes people have a negative experience working with our schools. not because they are bad, they are just trying to do so many things. That is the roll we are stepping into, the schools have wanted us to do that for a long time.

One of the fundraiser we do is our Gala. It's a great big party for people who support school to and come out for a good time. People say they forget it's a fundraiser. This year it is on September 11th  at Casa Perleta, its outside. We make it gorgeous, be bring fairy lights and make it into a magical place. We have an amazing band this year that is doing Salsa and soul. I heard the guy singing... we may need chaperones , his voice is so smooth.  Acapulco Restaurant is catering it, Mike Wieners restaurant. It's a great time for people to come out, party and support our schools.

You also have the Eat Out for Education

Now it's every Wednesday at 6 restaurants. People have to have the coupon with them, from our website and facebook page. 20% of your purchase goes to a specific school that week. Businesses are really happy to support which is good. That is one of the great things about San Leandro, I have found that if you ask people,  more often than not they will say yes.

I hear you went to the opening of the 21st amendment, I hear it was very well attended.

I have heard estimates of about 5000 people, about 4000 more than they were expecting. I think that San Leandro is excited to have a another brewery, another place to congregate. I was impressed with the people, even though it was a big beer fest everybody was so well behaved. Everyone was having a good time, being responsible.

It was a family event.  We were able to use about 40 high school volunteers to run face painting, water melon bowling, they had a jumpy house and a slide. We also had about 30 adult volunteers doing ID checks at the door.

Words of Wisdom or Finishing quote?

I have been thinking a lot lately about what makes education important and what makes it good. I have come to the conclusion that every child needs to succeed, when a child succeeds we all succeed. Also education is always better when the community is involved. Community brings a depth to the content and the experience. No matter how good a teacher is the experience can always be better if the community is somehow involved

 Thanks Morgan

Meet Your Neighbor - Addie

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Addie, I crawl and eat things I should not. I am a people person.

What do you love about San Leandro?

The weather and Zocalo Coffeehouse, I only just got here.

Finishing quote or words of wisdom?

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Meet Your Neighbor - Angele Sweet

Who are you are what do you do?

My name is Angele Sweet and I am a part-owner of a landscaping business here in San Leandro called Friend + Sweet and I design and maintain landscapes.  I love my job!

Excellent, excellent!  What do you love about San Leandro?

Oh gosh there are so many things to love about San Leandro!  I grew up in San Leandro so I love the hometown atmosphere.  People are friendly here.  You rarely meet somebody who doesn’t want to get to know you in some way, so I like that.  I like that neighbors care about each other.  I like all the volunteerism.  I like that people always want San Leandro to be better.  I love that people are always saying, “if only we could add this or that, it would be even better here.”  So the community, the great people are here, but I don’t think all the businesses and restaurants, and that kind of stuff is there yet.  And that’s what I am really interested in working on.

Right.  Cool.  So I know that you involved in with the San Leandro Downtown Association.  Can you tell us a little bit about that and the big event that you have coming up shortly.

Yes! The San Leandro Downtown Association is a group of wonderful people who work really hard to produce fun events in Downtown San Leandro.  So we do Sausage & Suds, It’s a Wonderful Night, Bike SL.  It’s just a great group of small business owners, community people, people who are involved in non-profits, businesses, and we all come together to make fun things happen in downtown.

What is the date for the Sausage & Suds event?

October 4, 2015.  It’s always the first Sunday of October.

Excellent.

Yes, and that’s going to be a fun event.  Lately we have really been trying to focus on what is local and great about San Leandro.  So the last couple of years we’ve had Drake’s Brewery have a special station at Sausage & Suds.  Last year it was Drake’s and 21^st Amendment.  They will both be there again this year.  We also hope to have our small boutique beer maker Cleophus Quealy there as well.  So we like to give the local a little bit of special attention because that is what makes San Leandro great!

And with the three breweries that we have, it feels like the vibe is changing.

Absolutely!  And we want to, with Sausage & Suds, we really want the people to come out and TASTE.  So, you know, I think sometimes people think, oh you’re just drinking beer and sitting in the sun, but we really want people to come out and taste our local products, and taste other breweries from all over the country, and taste that too, and see what’s special about what we have here.  So you know, there will be some big name brands but there are also a lot of small town breweries.  And I think that is what is cool, and I think that gets lost sometimes, in that there really is a celebration of uniqueness.

And you are also involved with the Community Benefit District.  Can you explain what that is and what you do.

Yeah.  So just fairly recently a Community Benefit District was set up in Downtown San Leandro called the San Leandro Improvement Association, aka SLIA.  I’m on the board of directors as well as the secretary.  The property owners in a prescribed district area are assessed a tax and it’s for cleanliness, beauty, safety and all of those good things.  The Community Business District is focused on the nuts and bolts.  So the guys that you see up and down the street sweeping the gutters and the sidewalks, they are paid through the Community Business District.  We are also going to be adding plants to all of the planters.  We will have enhanced security.  We will be supporting the San Leandro Downtown Association with their events.  We have really big plans!  It is very exciting!  We have a small budget but it’s nice to have a little bit of money, you know, to do these things.  So, it’s great.  Yeah!

So, going back to your business, since we are in this drought, how is that affecting your business?  Do you see some people trying to get rid of their lawns?

Oh! Absolutely! It’s amazing.  When I first started this business about ten or twelve years ago, I was really into drought tolerant plants, but then I learned pretty quickly that that’s what people didn’t want!  They didn’t want that, they wanted roses, hydrangeas.  I would always give them two plant palettes.  “Here is your regular water plant palette and here is your drought tolerant plant palette!  Isn’t this wonderful, the second one?”  And they would just look at me, like, “No, I don’t like that.”   And then about three years ago, all of a sudden people were calling me and saying, “I need a Bay-friendly, drought tolerant landscape.  I want to take out my lawn.”  And I was, like, shocked!  Because what I had studied in school ten years ago was finally coming around, because of the drought.  And I also think that the Bay-friendly model, too, you know, trying to use plants that fit within our climate, that don’t need as much water.  Plants that are Bay-friendly, use less pesticides, less herbicides, less water, less maintenance, that all fits into how I think things should be.  And so I am also a Bay-friendly certified designer and maintenance worker.  So it has changed my business a lot. Lawns are being ripped up all over the place and I’m designing new gardens which is, a complete different paradigm from the old landscape, where you have the green grass and you have a tree.  Now we are doing all kind of amazing things and it’s really colorful, more bees, more insects, less herbicides, more flowers.  I like this!  It’s less monoculture.

And is it, I’m sure it’s helping you since you are a very creative person, it just must be wonderful to be able to work with that.

Absolutely!  Yeah, it is, it’s great!  Because, you know, I’ve put in maybe two lawns.  But lawns are kind of boring and I don’t really care for lawns.  So it’s great to be able to put in a tree, ground cover, put in a little stone patio.  I like to create an environment so that when people come home, that they, their shoulders relax, they walk up to the front step and it smells good, there are pretty flowers, they see some insects.  I really want to create an environment that is beautiful… that is really important to me.  I think that we need more of it. 

If somebody wants to see what you do or contact you, if there a website or a FaceBook page?

Yes.  www.friendandsweet.com .  I have a great partner.  His name is Emil Friend.  His last name is Friend and I’m Sweet so we just stuck with our last names for the business because it was just too cute!

Very cool!  Any final words of wisdom?

Well, there is one that is kind of a fun.  People, sweep your gutters and plant a tree!  The best way to make a property look better is to keep your gutters clean and plant a tree! It’s amazing, trees are beautiful and trash isn’t. 

Thank you so much! You are awesome, thank you!

Meet Your Neighbor - Ellen McCarthy

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Ellen McCarthy, I have lived in San Leandro since 1995. I retired a few years ago from the field of public relations, before that I was a journalist, I started in radio KPFA. I wound up getting a PR job at KQED, I stayed in PR. I have always written, I have kept a journal. After retirement I started spending a little more time with my journal, crafting observations I was making, turning them into poems. I thought when I retired I would write a novel, but it wasn't my niche. Poetry I fell into it, I love doing it, almost every day. I have a lot of poems under different themes. 

One was the observations about life, finding out about how I think and feel about things that come up as you are in a beautiful place, often with my dog who died in December after 14 years. We used to take a lot of morning walks. My sister and I started putting books together, we did two of them. For the 3rd one she said let me take your natures poems, as I was assembling them I realized I had a whole bunch that referenced San Leandro. I had not come across any book that referenced San Leandro, no picture books or postcards. Here I had a collection of poems that referenced the beautiful places here that I enjoy so much, and I had my iPhone photos to go with it. I want to give a few copies to the Library, the City and the historical museum (A copy can be found in Zocalos). Purchase Book

What do you love about San Leandro?

I love the geographic location, between a lake and the San Francisco bay, with the redwood groves nearby, the eucalyptus groves and the spectacular weather which is probably the best on planet earth. I love the cultural diversity .

The poems came from the walks with your dog?

When you walk in a beautiful place and it is quiet, and you're not in conversation with anyone, you only have your thoughts. You tend to reflect on life and try to make sense out of the experience. I would stop and just take notes about something that I thought, that I wanted to remember. Then I might stop in a cafe and flesh it out a little bit, on my patio and flesh it out more, play with it until I thought it was done.

Did you find there was one walk or path that gave you more inspiration?

It depends on the time of day. Early in the morning most of the year the redwood groves like Chabot Park there are wonderful scents in the morning, the birds are very active, it's a great time to think, an especially stimulating time to think. Another time is at sunset, especially if you are on the bay, when you have clouds, when you have the light changing. At the marina where everybody walks where they have the loop and the trail that heads out to the San Mateo bridge there are a lot of seabirds. The tide is either in or out, that changes the color and the texture of everything around you. I'm not a religious person but I have become very spiritual in that setting, I think about how beautiful life is, how precious and rare. Midday everywhere is beautiful for walking and thinking, but I don't  find midday as inspirational as morning or evening

There is one photo I love which looks misty or smoky, I think it's near the Frisbee golf?

Chabot park in the early morning, it's just the fog lifting, just on my iPhone. I didn't know that is Frisbee golf. I was hit in the head once

It wasn't me  (Laughs)

He apologized profusely. It was Chabot Park about 8am. The light filtering through the mist. The fog is just starting to lift at that time of morning on a warm day. You can catch that any morning, it's gorgeous.

Any words of wisdom or a final quote?

Not sure if its words of wisdom but it is definitely something to live by, be the change you want to see in the world. Not my quote, but I love it.

Meet Your Neighbor - Roy Childress

Who are you and what do you do?

I am Roy Childress and I am owner of the Englander Sports Pub and Restaurant.

What do you love about San Leandro?

I love the progress that San Leandro is really getting into.  The community, it’s a nice community.  San Leandro is growing; they are putting new buildings up, new businesses, new housing which helps our business of course, and everyone around here.

Very cool.  What I love about the Englander is that you always have a variety of sports games on TV.  You have the Womens World Cup coming up.  Are you getting large crowds in for that?

Yes, the ladie’s games are drawing big crowds.  The women’s USA team brings in a big crowd.  The COPA America has a big crowd and then we have the Gold Cup next month which should be really good for us and all of our patrons that love soccer.

And then there are The Warriors!

Amazing! 

Wow

And you know what was nice about it, there were NO problems at all.  There were no issues at all.  It was wonderful, it really was.  Every seat was taken in the house and it was really good for us.  And of course the Warriors fans were wonderful.

It’s been a long time coming.

It sure was.  40 years.  I was at the first two games back in 1975.  My father actually took me to both of those games.  They actually won in a sweep – 4 games. 

You guys have always supported the community.  How many organizations come in here and use your facility?

Quite a few, I’ve never really counted them.  There is a lot!  The Ski Club, Soroptomist, Rotary, Kiwanis, Book Club, GTO club, MG club, I mean a lot.  They will have usually lunch or dinner.   It’s good for us, it’s good for the community. 

We all appreciate what you do for all of us.

Thank you so much

Do you have any final quote or word of wisdom?

Well, just keep working hard and it will pay off.

That’s good. Thank you Roy

The Englander Website

Meet Your Neighbor - Brian Bishop

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Brian Bishop, I am the Assistant General Manager here at Monarch Bay Golf Club. I oversee the operations, staffing for the golf shop, outside services,  food and beverage. I assist with the merchandising , accounting, anything to do with operating a facility of this sort. I work with our general manager Kevin Kobayashi.

What do you love about San Leandro?

The location, we have a beautiful place here in the East Bay, we are by the water. We are very lucky to have a beautiful golf course on the bay overlooking the downtown skyline (SF).  We have a very generous community that comes in here and gives us great patronage. We are lucky to be in a beautiful place in Northern California.

There are some great things about this facility, The main course, the executive course, footgolf and a Junior Golf Program. Tell us a little about that?

As you pointed out the 9 hole executive course we do have 18 holes of footgolf. It's a new craze that is going on within the golf community, it's a way of bringing a younger demographic to the game of golf. Those who may not have picked up a club or been shown the game, a lot of them play soccer. The golf community has melded foot golf into our courses. It's been great, we have hosted some tournaments for footgolf, we have got some great feedback from the community of San Leandro, it's something new, it's something fun.

It's a lot easier than golf!

Yes (Laughs) the hole is much wider, you can get out of the hazard a lot easier, out of the sand bunkers, especially if you get a good kick on it.

We also have the junior golf program, we are currently starting our Nike camp. Last week was our first week, that runs through the whole of August. Junior from 6 all the way to 13/14 years old. It's a wonderful opportunity to expose your child to the game of golf. You learn the fundamentals of the swing, fundamentals of chipping and putting, everything to engross them into the game of golf. We really reinforce having fun on the golf course, not taking themselves or the game to seriously. Setting them up with the skills of not only being a good golfer but a good individual, to respect the etiquette of the game.

What do you think about the US Open and the finish?

You hate to see someone lose it, Jordan is a wonderful champion. Everyone was putting on the same greens, there was some controversy based on the rolling surfaces... It's all you could ask for, last group, 18th hole, putt to win the championship, you wouldn't even think he would 3 putt to lose it. The flat stick is the great equalizer. Shows you where to spend your time while you practice.

Like the US Open course this year we have a links style course here.

We do, and we have poa annua greens like Chambers Bay, maybe not as bumpy (smiles). We have a links style course, dried out a little bit like Chambers Bay without the extravagant elevation changes.

I was out here the other day, I noticed they are working on a couple of the fairways, number 2. The course is in great condition right now.

We are doing quite well, we have been doing a re-sodding project in the last month so we are filling up some of the bare spots. Greens are in great shape. We are really proud with what our superintendant has been doing.

Any Words of wisdom?

Specifically for golf? Enjoy it and have fun. For Juniors and Adults if you take yourself or your game too seriously you lose the enjoyment, the vigor, the importance of what we come out here to do. Go out have fun with your friend and family, enjoy a beautiful day right on the bay with a wonderful backdrop. Enjoy that and you will have a better golf experience.

Meet Your Neighbor - Jan Woycheshin

Who are you and what do you do?

I am Jan Woycheshin. Its pronounced like your wristwatch, "a" and then the sun. I do a lot of things, I am a small business owner, my Husband and I are partners in J & P Video Productions, we produce corporate event and training videos along with audio reinforcement, background music for receptions and parties. I also volunteer at the Chamber 2 days a week, I am also at the Chamber for event coordination. I am on the board of Friends of San Leandro creek. We organize creek cleanups and are stewards for the creek. I am on the San Leandro Senior Commission, I am the chair for that. I am on the board of directors for a nonprofit called the Acme Foundation out of Lake County, they provide monetary assistance for the elderly and disabled for their seriously ill dog and cats (Jan is also a Chamber Ambassador)

What do you love about San Leandro?

I love San Leandro because it is so centralized to everything, its 25 minutes from San Francisco, its 4 hours from the mountains. I love the weather. I love the people. It has a small town feels, but it's a big town. It's a good place to live, the weather is great and I like being involved in the community, it's a very community oriented city.

You have been involved in Coffee connection for a long time, tell us about that?

I took over coffee connection in 2005 when we were still at the Davis street location, there was only about 3 people in attendance, it was just coffee, we tried to get people to talk about their business. Especially for the small business owners.  I thought if you feed them, they will come, let's have an open house at the Chamber.  So that December we had what I thought would be just an open house, during the course of it the then CEO said "Let's get the meeting started". I had not planned on a meeting.  That is how I started out with Coffee Connection.  It grew, we out grew the conference room. For a while we had our meeting at the Englander, when the Englander couldn't accommodate us any more we started moving the venue around.

That works out better. Each month we have a speaker that can talk about their business, they must be a Chamber member and the venue must be a Chamber member . Changing the venue allows each venue to show off their place of business.

It seems a fairly relaxed networking event.

It's a networking opportunity for about 20 minutes, then the speaker gets about 25 minutes, then everyone gets a chance to introduce themselves. Coffee connections tend to be anywhere from 20 to 60 people depending on the venue and what is going on.

If someone wants to attend a coffee connection do they have to be a Chamber member?

No. The Chamber does not have a prospective membership or orientation meeting. I tell people that if they are interested in finding out what the Chamber is about, come to a coffee connection. You will get a taste of the people who are in the Chamber, you will find out what we do, you will find a mix of people. Each coffee connection is about an hour, sometime people hang out a little longer networking. A lot of people have connected through coffee connection, it's not always who you know, it's who other people know.

You recently received an award?

Last year I received the leadership award for district 3 from San Leandro City council for some of the things I have done

Any final Words of Wisdom?

Come to San Leandro, It's a growing city, a growing community. It's a wonderful place to live. I have lived here since 1975 and I have seen a lot of changes, and things are still changing and I don't see them stopping for a very long time. I think everyone who comes here will fit right in.

Jan, Thank you so much.