{"id":299940,"date":"2026-05-04T23:59:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T23:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/299940\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T23:59:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T23:59:09","slug":"olympian-kristi-yamaguchi-reads-to-sacramento-ca-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/299940\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympian Kristi Yamaguchi reads to Sacramento CA students"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kristi Yamaguchi, who realized her dreams in 1992 by winning Olympic gold as a figure skater, wants to help today\u2019s children find and achieve their own dreams.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the goal of the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/alwaysdream.org\/\">Always Dream Foundation,<\/a> a nonprofit that promotes early childhood literacy that she founded, and why she visited Sacramento\u2019s <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"Follow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/strauch.trusd.net\/\">Hazel Strauch Elementary School<\/a> on Monday to join the school\u2019s Always Reading year-end celebration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe really hope that providing these literacy resources for them, and also the family engagement support for their families which is really the core part of our program, has given them the foundation to enjoy picking up a book, get excited about reading and unlocking their dreams,\u201d Yamaguchi said.<\/p>\n<p>Yamaguchi read her children\u2019s story \u201c<a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noFollow nofollow noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Caras-Kindness-Kristi-Yamaguchi\/dp\/1492616869\">Cara\u2019s Kindness,<\/a>\u201d which is about a cat who asks for help picking a song for an ice-skating routine.<\/p>\n<p>The Bee\u2019s Paul Kitagaki Jr. contributed to this story.<\/p>\n<p>                                          <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/SAC_0682_PK_20260504_YAMAGUCHI.JPG\"   width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" title=\"SAC_0682_PK_20260504_YAMAGUCHI.JPG\" alt=\"Olympic gold medalist figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi listens to a question from a student after reading from her book \u201cCara\u2019s Kindness\u201d at Hazel Strauch Elementary School in Sacramento on Monday.\"\/>                                                                                    Olympic gold medalist figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi listens to a question from a student after reading from her book \u201cCara\u2019s Kindness\u201d at Hazel Strauch Elementary School in Sacramento on Monday.                                                                                            PAUL KITAGAKI JR.                                                                             pkitagaki@sacbee.com                                                                                                                                  <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/SAC_0782_PK_20260504_YAMAGUCHI.JPG\"   width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" title=\"SAC_0782_PK_20260504_YAMAGUCHI.JPG\" alt=\"Olympic gold medalist figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi makes a pinky promise with a student to keep learning to read as she reads from her book \u201cCara\u2019s Kindness\u201d to students at Hazel Strauch Elementary School in Sacramento on Monday.\"\/>                                                                                    Olympic gold medalist figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi makes a pinky promise with a student to keep learning to read as she reads from her book \u201cCara\u2019s Kindness\u201d to students at Hazel Strauch Elementary School in Sacramento on Monday.                                                                                            PAUL KITAGAKI JR.                                                                             pkitagaki@sacbee.com                                                                                        <\/p>\n<p>                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/profile\/311668131\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                        <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"author-thumb\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/SAC_0175_PK_20250812_PK_KITAGAKI.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" alt=\"Profile Image of Paul Kitagaki Jr.\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n                    <\/a><\/p>\n<p>                <a class=\"author-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/profile\/311668131\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Paul Kitagaki Jr.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n<p>            Pulitzer-winning visual journalist Paul Kitagaki Jr. has covered deadly earthquakes in California and Mexico and 10 Olympic Games. His book and traveling exhibition \u201cGambatte! Legacy of an Enduring Spirit\u201d focus on the Japanese American incarceration. He joined The Bee 2003.\n            <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kristi Yamaguchi, who realized her dreams in 1992 by winning Olympic gold as a figure skater, wants to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-299940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}