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Best Community Service:

tony asaro

Tony Asaro is passionate about baseball. As the senior director of community relations for the Sacramento River Cats, Asaro is responsible for overseeing the educational outreach programs that, by the end of this year, will have affected more than 160,000 area students in grades one through 12. Through field trip programs at Raley Field like Home Run Tours, which uses baseball facts and figures to supplement classroom lessons about history and math, and Triple-A Assemblies, which teaches the three As (attitude, attendance and academics), Asaro gives kids the tools to succeed&emdash;tools that he still uses himself. You live on this rock for only so long, Asaro says, so you can never give up your passion.

Best Auto-Motif Repair:

stephens service center

The orchids are just the beginning. There are the Murano glass vases. The arty vegetable photographs. Not to mention the Miele espresso maker. No, you haven't stumbled into a home show; you're probably waiting for your car inside Stephens Service Center on Elvas Avenue. Independently owned for 14 years, Tom Stephens' Mercedes-Benz repair shop is a welcome sight to those of us who prefer pretty to gritty. There's no grease to be found, only hardwood floors and leaded-glass windows flanked by flowers. With 25 years of Mercedes service under his belt, Stephens modeled his shop after the dealerships he saw while training in Germany. And because 70 percent of service decisions are made by women (according to Stephens), he decided to revamp his shop this past winter in favor of something more esthetically pleasing. (5600 Elvas Ave., Sacramento; 916-452-5067)

Best One-Mouth Band:

leejay abucayan

When you close your eyes and listen to Leejay Abucayan perform, you'll think he's backed by a whole posse of musicians. Engaging his vocal chords, lips, tongue, teeth and the roof of his mouth in an art known as beatboxing, Abucayan&emdash;winner of the 2003 Austrian Beatbox Championship&emdash;can produce R&B, hip-hop, rock and swing sounds. The Sacramento native, a 2004 graduate of Natomas Charter School's Performing and Fine Arts Academy and current UC Davis student in technocultural studies, performs at clubs and fundraising events. Will he make beatboxing a career? School is always the No. 1 priority, but this is something I enjoy doing on the side, he says.

Best Child-ish Hair Salon:

tangles for kids

If every hair salon had video games, bubble machines and princess crowns, bad hair days would be a thing of the past. But then, not every hair salon is Tangles for Kids on Auburn Boulevard, the children's hairstyling mecca with lime-green walls, neon-bright chairs and a video game set-up at every station. Owner Karen Huff's salon is a veritable haven for youngsters 16 and younger, offering kid-centric cuts and fun styling that runs the gamut from French braids and curls for girls to colored gel for the more adventurous boys. Between the Nintendo and the fantastical dcor, who worries about tangles when there's Tangles? (7969 Auburn Blvd., Citrus Heights; 916-725-8645)

Best Jazz Man:

roger smith

Oddly enough, the least interesting thing about Roger Smith is that he survived cancer. The world-renowned jazz keyboardist wants you to know him for much more than that. Throughout his 30-year and seven-album career, Smith has been at the top of his game&emdash;producing and performing with such music legends as The Temptations, Willy Nelson and Gladys Knight&emdash;and at the top of the charts: His single Off the Hook hit No. 1 on Billboard Magazine's Contemporary Jazz singles chart in 1999. Prostate cancer surgery in early 2005 didn't stop Smith: He's back on tour with funk and R&B band Tower of Power and is working on a new CD.