Eliza Ridgeway

Children develop their earliest musical abilities by watching and listening to the musical world of the grown-ups around them – not through formal taught instruction. That’s why local early-childhood music educator Rizzie Vacketta includes parents in her music classes – and has even taught evening guitar classes as a bonus to encourage the eager beavers among her adult family participants.

The Lodge family started the Golden Eagle Summer Sports Camp 39 years ago as an all-day program located at Los Altos High School for kids ages 5-13. The play-based camp, which lets campers try out many sports rather than specializing in any one area, has also opened a location at Homestead High School. Carly and Stefaan Lodge, a married couple who are the second generation to run the camp, form each group of approximately a dozen kids based on age, paired with a counselor and a junior counselor.

Mountain View teens Liam Thijssen, 14, and Greg Pargett, 15, created a role-playing universe and wanted to share it with other kids, so they recruited players for a donation-based week of camp in a local park last summer.