Speakers

Nancy Anderson serves as Kern County’s Chief Administrative Officer, and brings with her a wealth of government leadership experience. She previously worked for Kern County for 20 years in a variety of key leadership positions, including Chief Operations Officer, Assistant County Administrative Officer for Budget, Finance and Compliance, Assistant Auditor-Controller, and Special Accounting Division Chief.

She then honed her craft at the County of Santa Barbara for four years, serving as their Chief Assistant County Executive Officer and Assistant County Executive Officer. Born and raised in Bakersfield, CA, Ms. Anderson is thrilled to be returning home to lead her community forward. Ms. Anderson also holds a Bachelor of Science from CSU Bakersfield with a concentration in accounting and is a Certified Fraud Examiner.

Luigi’s and Lemucchi’s Grocery has been at its present location since 1910 and is one of Bakersfield’s oldest continuous family operated businesses. Joe Lemucchi, the founder of the business, came to California from Lucca, Italy and started his original cafe on Sumner Street in 1906. Lemucchi married Emelia Degiuli, also an Italian immigrant, and the couple moved in 1910 to the present location of the business at 725 East 19th Street. The original store had family quarters in the rear where the couple’s 4 children, Louis, Lena, Harry and Helen, were born.

The early business featured a grocery, a cafe, a bakery and a gasoline station. 19th Street was the main thoroughfare between Bakersfield, and the then town of Sumner. The street car line from Bakersfield extended east on 19th Street and terminated at Baker Street.East 19th Street also ended at the Lemucchi Store, merging into Edison Highway which became the main highway exiting and entering Bakersfield on the east side.

The now famous Luigi sandwich originated in the cafe where Joe and Emelia always had fresh stew, pasta sauce and minestrone soup for hungry customers. Small but intimate in the back corner of the grocery, the cafe was always a popular gathering spot.After Joe Lemucchi’s death, Emelia and her son, Louis, continued the business. The bar was added next to the old store, and the restaurant expanded into the building to the east. In the 1920’s and 1930’s the concrete and steel structure now housing the  restaurant, had been rented by Shell Oil Company and was at one time their Kern County Headquarters. The new expanded bar and restaurant were named “Luigi’s.”

Luigi was an incessant collector of photos and sports memorabilia, covering the walls of his business with photos of local athletes spanning more than ten decades. The photos displayed on the walls constitute only a small portion of Luigi’s pictorial collection.The photos of Luigi’s are a constant attraction to multiple generations of Kern County patrons who return frequently to view a favored photo with a friend, relative or member of a new generation.Since the death of Luigi in 1989, Luigi’s has been operated by a new generation of the Lemucchi family. Antonia Valpredo, daughters Monica, Lanette and son Gino are the third and fourth generations of the family to operate the popular East Bakersfield establishment.

Location address: 7301 Old River Rd, Bakersfield

Court Appointed Special Advocates of Kern County (CASA) has announced its new executive director is Bakersfield native Ashley Vorhees

Previously, Vorhees was the executive director of the American Heart and Stroke Association and site director for Catholic Charities in Bakersfield for
several years.

Most recently, she was Vice President of Fundraising and Communications at Girls Scouts of Central California South.

Vorhees will lead CASA’s efforts in recruiting and training volunteers to act as court appointed special advocates to children who have been removed from
their homes and placed in foster care.