A gorgeous night for the 49th Community Awards
PART 1: The Chamber of Commerce gave out awards for Citizen of Year, Business of the Year, Volunteer of the Year, and more
This is Part 1 of a two-part article.
The Sebastopol Chamber of Commerce held its 49th Community Awards ceremony last night at Russian River Vineyards. Chamber Director Myriah Volk and Chamber board member Melena Moore, the owner of Bliss Organic Day Spa, handed out awards to businesses and individuals across a range of categories. It was a gorgeous evening—the rain cleared just in time—and it was the sort of event that makes you proud to be a part of a town like Sebastopol.
Citizen of the Year: Cynthi Stefenoni
Fourth-generation Sebastopudlian Cynthi Stefenoni was awarded Citizen of the Year last night for her indefatigable efforts on behalf of the Sebastopol Documentary Film Festival, the Center for the Arts, Sebastopol Rotary, the Chamber and a half dozen other organizations. Not to mention her secret and wide-ranging community philanthropy.
It was the final award of the evening, and she was introduced by her longtime partner Natalie Boothe.
What’s the secret to Stefenoni’s success? Being willing to make the first move.
“If you have a business or just a great smile, you will probably see me coming to you and asking for something,” she said, “because my belief is—and it started when I was 10 and my little brain said, ‘Oh, I get it. Everybody’s afraid to make the first move because they’re afraid they’ll be shut down. So if I make the first move, already knowing that could happen, what’s the worst that could happen? Probably nothing.’ That has guided me for the last 60 years.”
Read our profile about Stefenoni and Boothe from March of this year.
Hall of Fame Award: Screamin’ Mimi’s
When Volk was looking through the nominations for awards, she also took a look at past awards. She noticed that, although this was the 49th Annual Community Awards, Screamin’ Mimi’s, which has been around since 1995, had never won Business of the Year. Yikes.
“I couldn’t understand why not, so I felt like we’d skip them straight up to the Hall of Fame,” Volk said. The Hall of Fame award looks at the community contributions of a person or business over a long period of time.
Moore gave the introduction: “Maraline opened up Screaming Mimi’s on Oct. 28, 1995. For the past 30 years, they have been more than just an ice cream shop to our families. They’ve employed our local youth, not only during the summertime, but year-round. The amount of organizations and youth fundraisers they have supported cannot even be listed. They donate to any school that makes a request, as well as 4H, Rotary Clubs, Interact, the Senior Center. They’ve been right there for everybody from the very beginning.”
“Basically, we never say no,” said Maraline “Mimi” Mazzetti Olson, who accepted the award with her husband and son, Kurt and Carter Olson. In her speech, she recalled that she opened Screamin’ Mimi’s on a so-called cursed corner—right at the corner of Highways 116 and 12.
She remembered being there at nighttime, painting the walls until one in the morning, preparing to open her new business. “People would come in at, like, eight at night and say, ‘You know, this is a lousy location. You’re gonna fail.’”
She noted that they were celebrating the business’s 30th anniversary this month.
“I’m really proud of what we brought to the corner, brought to the entrance of Sebastopol, and I’m really happy to be a part of this community,” she said. “I am really honored to be here with people who are being honored for volunteering, because I work a lot, and I can’t volunteer that much, and I am in awe of volunteers.”
Her husband Kurt gave all credit to his wife and spoke movingly about the young people they’ve employed over the years (600 or 700 at last count) and the memories they’ve created for local families over the years, like “a grandfather and a granddaughter coming to the shop and sharing an ice cream cone.”
“Literally millions and millions of memories like that over the last 30 years have been created because of what she created,” he said, speaking of Maraline. “So my advice is marry a really hard-working, brilliant genius. It worked for me.”
Fire Service Personnel of the Year: Joe Pogar and Ray Senn
The evening started out with an award for Fire Service Personnel of the Year, which went to longtime volunteer reservists, Joe Pogar and Ray Senn—who after many years as fire department volunteers became guardians of Sebastopol’s fire hydrants.
Assistant Fire Chief Steve Thibodeau gave a brief introduction to their service to the department. “Ray started in 1979 and served the community through the late 90s, and then he went to a reserve position. And you would think once you go to a reserve position that you would kind of slow down a little bit. Well, Ray didn’t slow down at all. He and Joe took on the hydrant program in Sebastopol—so all those cool-looking silver and blue hydrants you guys see around town, this man right here, Ray and Joe Pogar flow tested those, painted them, and took care of all those hydrants for years and years and years.”
Senn thanked the city, the chamber, and his family, especially his wife, for putting up with his volunteer fire department work over the years “because getting up at four o’clock in the morning, you know, just doesn’t sit well with some people.”
See our July 2024 story on Pogar and Senn here.
Police Officer of the Year
Police Chief Sean McDonagh, wearing his signature cowboy hat, introduced the Police Officer of the Year, Paige Thomas.
“You’ll see her walking around town doing the foot patrols. She’s very active, and she’s the first person to volunteer to fill shortages within our agency when we have those needs arise—where there’s vacation time or somebody’s sick—so she’s very much appreciated. We love having her around. We hope she’s with us for many years to come.”
With admirable brevity, Thomas said, “I’m very thankful to work for such a great city and a great department and I’m thankful to receive this award.”
Youth Citizen of the Year: Kazhal Rabiei
Kazhal Rabiei moved from Iran to the U.S. in 2020 with almost no knowledge of the English language. Chuck Wade, the principal of Analy High School, wrote this about her when he nominated her for Youth Citizen of the Year: “She is a brilliant student, a super positive presence on campus and a longtime site council volunteer, who has contributed an important student perspective to policy development here at Analy.”
Kazhal’s brief speech was touching:
“My country is a beautiful country full of life and love and people with the kindest hearts, but unfortunately, certain problems made it impossible for women to express themselves and be free. Receiving this award really is important to me because it proves to me that I can be anyone here, be a dancer (as I love), be myself and hopefully make my family proud. On that note, Mom, Dad and [unclear], I really love you guys. Thank you for supporting me and cheering me on, even though you guys were struggling so much yourselves. Lastly, thank you, Sebastopol, for choosing me, and I hope that this lovely community could be my ladder to success in the future.”
Service to Youth Award: Spencer Burrows
Musician and music teacher Spencer Burrows won the Service to Youth award. Volk introduced him like so: “Spencer runs his own music instruction business, Burroughs Studios, where he’s been teaching children privately for over 20 years. Regarding school programs, he’s worked with Pine Crest, Gravenstein, REACH, and Credo High School, and in 2023 he became the choral director at Analy High School, his alma mater.”
Expressing the idea that “Everybody has this beautiful light of music and art inside, and that’s what I work with,” Burrows said, “This is an incredible honor for me, because I’m surrounded by people who have also lifted me up.” He mentioned Diana Rich, as well as local musicians Jim Corbett, Buzzy Martin, and Jerry Hertz. “Those are the people who brought me up,” he said, “and now I get a chance to do that.”
Public Servant of the Year: Diana Rich
Former Mayor Diana Rich was chosen as Public Servant of the Year.
Moore gave this introduction: “Diana moved to Sebastopol in 1999 with her family, and ever since then, has been a major contributor to the quality of life here. Over the last 20 plus years, her community service has crossed paths with many organizations in many areas: youth sports organizations, parent-teacher associations, school foundations—she was awarded the Chamber of Commerce Service to Youth Award in 2005,” Moore reminded everyone, as she continued to list Rich’s achievements: “Meet Your Neighbor, emergency preparedness, the Patrick Amiot calendar as a fundraiser for youth programs, the Sebastopol Area Community Alliance, the Sebastopol Community Cultural Center, the Sebastopol West 100 and many, many more.”
“I love Sebastopol. Everyone knows that about me,” Rich said. “I absolutely love this town. It’s been a pleasure to be contributing to the quality of life here for the last 20 plus years. We’ve raised our kids here, and I got the wonderful, fabulous gift of working with so many of you out here and being part of the life here in our little town. So thank you to everyone who has given me that opportunity and who has made this town so welcoming to me and my family and my grandchild.”
Part 2 of this article will cover Nonprofit of the Year, Business of the Year, New Business of the Year, Service to Seniors and more.