Professional Services in North Fair Oaks

Code 3 Cleaners' seasoned staff spruces up garbs and household textiles through professional laundry, dry-cleaning, and alteration services. Dry cleaners eschew water in favor of a chemical solvent to wrest stains from fine fabrics; the laundering and hand-washing specialists use top-quality detergents and softeners. After washing, they carefully sort and fold spotless duds into neat piles or crisp airplanes. A pickup and delivery option accommodates clients who are busy or who have no clean pants left to wear.

For Fresh Ideas owner Derik Bakker, flowers are more than just petals and stems. “They stir something,” he explains. “It’s not a ream of paper or a T-shirt. It’s something far more personal.” That stirring is why, three times a week, Bakker’s team pilots a refrigerated truck more than 100 miles to pluck the freshest farm-grown coastal buds. Directly sourcing flowers allows Fresh Ideas to keep prices down and also increases its flexibility when filling orders. Bakker can provide hundreds of flowers in bulk to clients 50 miles away while still handcrafting small floral arrangements for locals.

The unique nature of Bakker’s business also allows for a more personal interaction with clients. Unlike larger companies that are forced to interrelate with impersonal 1-800 numbers, Fresh Ideas staffs floral specialists who go over colors with clients, offering suggestions. They can even special order out-of-season flowers from as far away as South America or the secret NASA greenhouses on the moon.

This attentiveness has made the company a popular arrangement source for area restaurants and markets, and anyone who sets foot on the grounds can see that Bakker's passion runs deep. He and his 17-year-old daughter––coincidentally named Sarah Rose––have spent the last year planting seeds by hand in their own onsite sunflower garden. He tells those who ask that they grew the blooms "the old-fashioned way"—the same way he's grown his business.

Bariteau's Dry Cleaners has been gussying up garments in Santa Cruz for more than a century and has been owned and operated by the same family since it opened its doors in 1908. Those same doors stay open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. to accommodate varying work schedules and power-napping routines. Beyond offering basic dry cleaning of dresses, shirts, pants, and suits, the shop extends its stain-lifting expertise to commonly soiled household items such as blankets and sleeping bags, with a maximum turnaround time of five days for most common items.

Charleen "Char" Gagliardi owes her life to dry cleaning. In 1937, her parents bought a red bungalow on McHenry Avenue and opened up Deluxe Cleaners. The business kept Char's dinner plate full and her wardrobe natty as a youth, and it became her bread and butter 40 years later, when she left her career as a teacher to continue her parent's legacy. With the help of her husband, Carl, Char built a laundry room and initiated free pickup and delivery service, and the couple joined the Lions Club to share their work ethic and the free wattage emanating from their luminous smiles with the community.

Char and Carl now watch proudly as their daughter, Pam, follows a familiar path to happiness. Pam began learning the ins and outs of Deluxe Cleaners when she was 13. She has since modernized its gadgets with the support of her husband, and she designed an invisible fairy-wing steamer at the behest of her three children. Three generations of know-how inform their technique, which relies on petroleum-based solvent to clean fine garments and household textiles such as rugs and bedding without damaging the environment.

Kid Red Entertainment knows how to crash a party–and make it better. The full-service entertainment company can add a sweet touch to events with confectionary indulgences such as cotton-candy machines or tubs of ice cream from Baskin Robbins. Favorite characters take center stage on rented movie screens or as costumed guests and recite kid-friendly monologues from Titus Andronicus. Kid Red can also supply a DJ to soundtrack sweet sixteens, weddings, school dances, and other celebrations.

The Spark Program addresses the nation's dropout crisis by connecting students from underserved neighborhoods with professionals who help motivate them to succeed academically and professionally. Each student identifies his or her dream job, and Spark matches the student with a mentor who has that job and can provide a one-on-one workplace apprenticeship. During the fall or spring session, students work on a specific project with their mentors at their workplace once a week for two hours after school. Additionally, students attend an in-school Leadership Class, led by a school staff volunteer, where they learn professional skills such as resumé writing and public speaking. Each session culminates in a Discovery Night, where students present their projects.

To date, Spark has provided more than 1,500 apprenticeships to middle-school students across the United States. Nearly all participating students come from neighborhoods where dropout rates exceed 50%, but Spark's alumni data show that apprentices have significantly higher graduation rates from high school, improved academic performance and attendance, and fewer suspensions.