West Sacramento
News-Ledger Wednesday, November 18, 2015 Page 1
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Wednesday, November 18, 2015
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“An evening of Music Memorializing James Driver” By Monica Stark editor@valcomnews.com
In memory of James Driver, a longtime resident and musician of West Sacramento and graduate of the old Marshall High School, a concert benefiting River City High School’s music boosters will feature a reunion of his old music buddies, including former West Sacramento Mayor and Yolo County Supervisor, Mike McGowan; professional musician Mick Martin; Tony Marvelli; Dick Leathers and Lou Freitas. To be held on Saturday, Dec. 5, the event has taken the name “An evening of Music Memorializing James Driver” and will be held at the Black Box Theater located at 1075 West Capitol Ave. in West Sacramento. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. with food and libations available for purchase. Concert starts at 7:30 p.m. Truly a grassroots, legacy group of musicians coming together for free,
Photo courtesy of Don Gulcher
Shown here are members of the River City High School Band. trying to help out the school, the band consists of many former grads of the high school (when it was named James Marshall High School), as well as local residents and some who work in
West Sacramento. The city of West Sacramento is donating the facilities; all of the band members are donating their time and talents; Clarksburg Wine Company is donating wine and Jack Rab-
bit Brewery is donating a keg of beer. Additionally, Waste Management is covering the sound system, so all of the ticket sales and proceeds from the bar go to the band booster club.
Truly a community event, to date, 80 tickets have been sold and the goal is 300. Get your tickets now; it’s likely to sell out. Boosters parent Stephanie Ciesielski Gulcher, mother of junior drum
major Zachary Gulcher, discussed the value of the band program in relation to the growth of her son and the accomplishments it has made. “Mr. (Tony) Marvelli has a wonderful program. They do a lot of competitions in various areas of the state and a lot of money we raise helps pay for entrance fees. (The competitions) help kids gain confidence in their abilities and they give us a rating as a band program in the state. We’ve been to competitions in Fairfield, Napa; this coming Saturday, Fairfield again. It’s exciting for the kids to get out. We participated in the Vets parade in Sacramento, the MLK parade in Sacramento. This April, they will be marching at Disneyland; so we’re fundraising for members of the band who wouldn’t otherwise be able to participate. Also, there will be scholarships available because of this concert... See Band, page 9
West Sacramento native needs your help (Editor’s note: The following account has been taken from a GoFundMe account that has been created to help West Sacramento native, 27-year-old Kharisma VanFleet, who has been fighting a rare form of liver cancer and has a young boy named De’Mantai. As an aside, he attends a West Sacramento school and she is returning to work at the McDonald’s in Southport.)
Photo by Karla Leal/RCHS student
River City senior, Austin Roberts, poses with friends and teammates while wearing his Sac. State hat and argyle sweater at his signing ceremony.
Hornets hit a homerun By Faisal Khan RCHS student River City senior, Austin Roberts, signed a letter of intent to accept a full baseball scholarship to play for the Hornets of Sacramento State University on Thursday. Roberts was a standout pitcher for the Raiders last season leading the team to a second place finish in league play and an appearance in the playoffs. His fastest pitch that was recorded was 95 miles per hour. Consistently, Roberts can throw about 90 to 93 miles per hour. Roberts also competed on the Best Speed Baseball travel team where he got an opportunity to play for former River City baseball coach, Alec Smith. Coach Smith was present when Roberts signed his commitment. Roberts has been playing for River City since his freshmen year and although he has a college scholarship, his goal for the upcoming season with the Raid-
ers is to win a TCC league championship and advance farther into the playoffs. Roberts reminisces on his years playing for River City, “Each year gets more memorable than the next…going back to my freshmen year…being immature…young… going to the man I am today…knowing that I have the next chapter in my life in college playing baseball…” Baseball, according to Roberts, is his main passion, but he also plays other sports. He enjoys basketball and has made the River City varsity team. While competing on the Sac. State baseball team, he is planning to study kinesiology, the study of the mechanics of body movements. For all the kids that play little league in West Sacramento and the junior varsity players at River City, Roberts message is, “…to keep pushing and try hard because anything is possible. I can tell you first hand… this is the biggest dream in my life…getting a good education, to play a sport, and to do what I love to do.”
West Sacramento native, 27-year-old Kharisma was having bad abdominal pains. Her brother took her to UC Davis Medical Center to find out what is wrong; and they ended up staying seven days. After all the biopsies, MRIs, and ultra sounds, they discovered that she has multiple lesions on her liver, further tests were given and she and her brother were sent home. Early this year she was having bad abdominals pain again, so Kharisma’s then-8-year-old son De’Mantai was left with his grandparents and his mom was brought her back to UCDMC and she and her brother stayed for five days. After all those biopsies, MRIs, and ultrasounds, they came to a conclusion that she most likely has something called Epithelioid hemangioendothelioma (EHAE or EHE). It’s a rare tumor that only affects 1 in every million people worldwide. Only around 20 cases are diagnosed in America every year; the cause is unknown and it’s unresponsive to any known strain of chemotherapy, making the treatment extremely difficult. After the second visit at UCDMC she started seeing a new primary doctor where they referred us to Stanford Medical Center, one of the highest ranked hospitals in America. “We took the three-hour drive to Stanford from Sacramento for her first appointment. We arrived and the doctor assured us that he will find a solution and he will work hard on her case, if that means surgery or a liver transplant. Three weeks later, we traveled back down to Stanford for a follow up appointment and to get MRIs done. During the follow See Kharisma, page 2