The Faces of East Sacramento tells the story of our community through the people who live here and know it best - one face, one voice at a time.
Meet Candice Moll Bennett! Thank you Candice for taking the time to share some of your thoughts about East Sacramento and a few things about yourself.
Question: How long have you lived in East Sacramento?
Answer: I’ve been in East Sac for almost exactly 23 years! I moved into my home at the beginning of April 2001.
Q: What attracted you to East Sac?
A: Honestly, it was my dream neighborhood. Coming from the Portland, OR metro area I had a sense of the Sacramento region just being a massive zone of strip malls and suburban sprawl. I was living in Auburn and luckily connected with an old acquaintance who invited me to visit him in Midtown. I fell in love with the central parts of the city and eventually moved into an apartment in the Marshall Park neighborhood. When it came time to buy a home with my then financé, we felt priced out of everything. We loved East Sac and felt like we would never be able to find a place that fit our needs here. Then amazingly this place came into our lives.
Q: What keeps you here?
A: I absolutely love it here—the ability to walk so, so, many places, the ability to have all my appointments and shopping so close to home, and my amazing neighbors, are all reasons I value my living situation so much.
Q: What’s your favorite restaurant in East Sac? What do you like most about it?
A: Can I just count Coffeeworks? I love Kru—so, so, very delicious. But Coffeeworks has kept me well supplied with lavender lattes for so many years on those challenging mornings when I’m just dragging myself to work.
Q: What do you do for a living? What led you to your current career or occupation?
A: I teach English to bilingual elementary school students. It was almost just chance—I was graduating with a degree in French and didn’t really know what direction to go as far as a career. My cousin was getting a teaching credential at a night school here in Sacramento and I thought, “Humm. Maybe I’ll go to California and get a credential? If I don’t enjoy teaching, I’m sure many of the skills I learn will be useful in other fields.” Then I liked it. And found it meaningful.
A: What’s at the top of your bucket list?
A: Oh. I like this question. So many things I want to do. And I lost my physical list! Hopefully, it will turn up. Top as in most important or next that I will check off? Mine isn’t really in order–but one of the most important to me is getting to do extended travels in Southeast Asia, at least a three-week trip. The next thing scheduled that I will check off my list, is to spend some nights on a boat. I know I could live full-time in an Airstream (when my kids were younger we would travel full-time over the summers.) I’m curious as to whether I could live on a boat.
Q: What do you like to do for fun?
A: I am absolutely not one of those grown-ups who forgot how to have fun. Dancing and traveling in my VW van are currently the most important fun things on my calendar. I also really enjoy spending time with friends and family. There’s lots of getting together for meals, pub trivia, cookbook club, music festivals, concerts, and theater.
Q: If you could wave a magic wand and change anything about East Sacramento, what would it be?A: Ooo. Got it. We would all have landscaping that took care of itself. For sure. So all of our patios, yards, outdoor living spaces were always just perfectly ready to enjoy like something in a Nancy Meyer’s movie. (And I’m a teacher—so also all of the kids would LOVE reading, pick it up fairly easily, and have lots and lots of books!)