Everybody’s business

Where Joe’s will go
Trader Joe’s has signed the lease and made it known: The Chico TJ’s will be located at the North Valley Plaza mall at East and Cohasset avenues.

“We’re hoping to have the store open by the end of the year,” said Jon Basalone, vice president of marketing for the Monrovia-based chain.

Basalone said that Trader Joe’s generally opts for smallish stores around 10,000 to 12,000 square feet in size. “There’s not a cost thought process behind that,” he said. “It’s more about customer experience. We try to have that ‘neighborhood market’ [feel].”

He acknowledged that population-wise, Chico is “a little bit smaller than [the cities] we usually go into.”

The company expects to transfer a “captain” to manage the Chico store and then, “on average, we like to build a crew of about 40 to 50 people from the local area.”

It takes a big man…
Sure, he could just double the time he already puts in at the gym, but Randy Zachary figures if he can raise money for Africa while losing weight, he’s going to go for it.

Zachary, known in Chico as a radio DJ, sports fan and marriage-building workshop leader, is tired of being overweight, and, with the go-ahead from his doctor, plans to walk around Southern California for 40 days starting Sept. 9.

“About a year ago I was pushing 470,” said Zachary, who is now a comparatively svelte 400 or so. He exercises regularly, but doesn’t eat like he should.

Zachary is taking a cue from the book The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warrens, which purports that one person can do a lot to change the world in 40 days. A plea by U2’s Bono also touched Zachary’s weight-threatened heart.

The money he raises will go toward food, medicine and other relief to poverty-stricken Africa, via a group called the Rock of Africa Mission. Others will be joining him in the L.A. area to raise funds.

“They have a ton of dollars and people down there,” Zachary said of the choice to trek through SoCal. “We were originally talking about walking across America, but that’s a little much.”

Pledge sheets can be found online at www.rockofafrica.org.

“I’m literally saving my life as well as theirs,” Zachary said. “I’ve got 40 days to spare and a lot of blubber to burn.”

Whistling Vixie
A hip, hip hooray goes out to Paradise teacher David Vixie, who last week was named 2005 Disney Teacher of the Year.

That’s of the whole, entire nation. Vixie was one of 45 finalists, chosen from among 50,000 nominees and judged on criteria including creativity, innovative teaching methods and ability to inspire students.

The eighth-grade history teacher has been at Paradise Adventist Academy since 1996.

Besides receiving a cool $40,000 (plus $5,000 and a development workshop for his school), Vixie was featured in the Disneyland Main Street Parade during a weeklong visit in which the finalists collaborated professionally and enjoyed the theme park.