Tarah Bluth
Tarah Bluth entered the 2022 Inked Magazine’s tattooed cover model competition in January which includes an Inked Magazine cover photo shoot with a celebrity photographer and a $25,000 cash prize.
“My tattoos have meaning behind them,” said Bluth.
Of her many tattoos, Bluth said her favorite is a piece that stretches from her shoulder to her wrist on her left side.
“It’s my son’s blankie design,” said Bluth. “It was a security blanket he had since he was a baby. And puzzle pieces to support our struggles with autism and sensory processing disorder.”
Bluth said her son is severely autistic and non-verbal. His sensory issues have been a big challenge for the both of them.
Bill Highland
Bill Highland, a former Yuba City High School principal and Rotary District 5180 Speech Chairperson and Yuba City Rotary Speech Chairperson, said the club had a difficult time recruiting students for the contest this year because of the many negative consequences caused by issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change.
“We are having a very tough time attracting applicants for all of our youth programs and I think it has something to do with a general malaise with our high school level youth regarding a reaction to all of the disasters that have occurred during their recent life experiences including pandemic, fires, potential floods, greenhouse climate issues like the ‘sinking’ of San Francisco, etc.,” Highland said. “The question for these speech applicants is why did they apply when so many students are not applying for anything lately?”
Maree Gauper
A forum, entitled “A Teaching Moment” was created by organizer and 30-year Wheatland resident Maree Gauper in part to discuss recent events that, as Gauper said, made Wheatland internet famous, or as she noted, infamous.
Gauper was referring to pictures that circulated on social media in December 2021 of Wheatland Union High School students with white supremacist symbols drawn on their bodies and the display of a white supremacist hand gesture.
As someone who had four children graduate within the Wheatland Union High School District school system and loves her town, Gauper was troubled by what transpired in Wheatland last year so she began to make calls and organize a public forum.
Gauper said the purpose of the forum is to get people talking about what has happened in the span of a few months in the mid-valley.
“It might inspire kids to see clergy from different backgrounds and races working together on something,” Gauper said. “It might give them hope.”
Jeff Stephens
Volunteers helped to clean up the demolition of the old fence that was taken down from the right-field line to center field at Bryant Field inside Hard Rock Park in Marysville on Feb. 26.
Bryant Field was one of about four or five locations that SAYlove worked at that day.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Stephens said each location is created through partnerships that SAYlove has made over the years.
According to Stephens, SAYlove will partner with anybody and everybody to help clean-up the mid-valley. The group volunteers on the last Saturday of each month at different locations around the region.
“If I feel I have the people, I will take on whatever jobs I can to help out the community,” Stephens said.
Christopher Little
“Two years ago, 24 months ago in March, they shut down all outdoor schools across the state. My director, Shannon (Cueva), who is also my wife, the coordinator, we had to let go of our entire staff. The entire staff was laid off. I told them, ‘Just so you know, the best thing you can do is go and invest in yourself. Go out there and live life,” said Christopher Little, director of Shady Creek Outdoor School and Event Center, in a message to the dedicated staff of the 132-acre regional treasure nestled in a remote region of Nevada County.
He said about 20 people were laid off from the outdoor school during the time it was forced to close because of COVID-19 restrictions.
“And they’re family,” Little said.
Because the center was essentially closed due to COVID-19, the remaining staff at Shady Creek had to resort to a virtual version of the school during that first year of the pandemic. But, for Little, whose passion for Shady Creek and the kids who attend is unmatched, that just wasn’t enough.
