A love letter to Sebastopol's service clubs
In this first-person essay, Craig Litwin pays tribute to the service clubs that make Sebastopol work—and what it feels like to be a part of one
EDITOR’S NOTE: Much of the good work that gets done in Sebastopol gets done by service clubs—organizations like Rotary, Kiwanis, the Lions Club, etc. They host many of the various celebrations that make life here so rich and fun—The 3rd of July Fireworks (Kiwanis), the Easter Egg Hunt in Ives Park (Kiwanis), Halloween in Ives Park (Kiwanis), and the Community Christmas Dinner and Toy Giveaway (Rotary).
They also provide much of the peoplepower for many of the town’s other celebrations—like the Apple Blossom Parade and Festival, the Christmas Tree Lighting, and the Gravenstein Apple Fair. (The first two are produced by the Sebastopol Chamber of Commerce, the latter by Farm Trails.)
Got a community-minded project you need help with? Chances are one of these service clubs will lend a hand and help make it happen.
And this doesn’t begin to cover all the other things that service clubs do—the international charity, the local education grants given out by Rotary and Kiwanis; the vision care provided by the Lions Club, which, among other things, ensures that no child in Sebastopol who needs glasses goes without, and so much more.
All of these service clubs, however, face a similar challenge—many of their members are aging, and a lot of folks around town are wondering how anything is going to get done without them. All are actively looking for new members.
That’s why we were thrilled to come across this article from Kiwanis member and former Sebastopol Mayor Craig Litwin. It’s the story of his personal experience of belonging to one of these clubs.
This essay has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
One sunny, warm, comfortable, and alarmingly dry February afternoon, I was sitting in a circle on a plush couch at my weekly Sebastopol Kiwanis meeting. Next to me was my dear friend of 30 years, a guest at my club interested in joining. We met by giving away organic gardens to people in 1999 if they agreed to not use pesticides, used heirloom and native non-GMO seeds, and returned surplus to the collective. We called ourselves Planting Earth Activation and together we youngsters gave away hundreds of gardens, closing streets to work fast, and often planting ten in a weekend.
Near us were other guests for the day, a group who founded and runs the nonprofit, Play it Forward Music Foundation They give away instruments to youth in need and teach them to play. One well-to-do board member shared how his family was too poor to afford a clarinet as a kid, so he earned his living, retired, and is now giving back as a driving force to raise $100,000 to support their programs.
In the Kiwanis Club of Sebastopol, we have a meeting tradition called Happy/Sads. It is where people put in a few bucks and say what they are happy, sad (or sometimes ambivalent) about. It is a gem of an experience and why I ultimately decided to join. My first in-person meeting was during COVID, and we were meeting outside under a wonderful oak grove adjacent to Peacetown’s Peace Garden at the Sebastopol Community Cultural Center. On that day, I paid attention to the flow of emotions and experiences, and realized that, in a strange new way, it mirrored my own. I felt connected to this wonderful group expressing honest feelings. I had found one of my tribes.
Fast forward to this month: On a recent, warm, sunny, hypnotically comfortable February day, our Happy/Sads start, and our co-president first shared his happiness for “general ebullience.” Our president goes next, right into a deeply moving experience. Mind you, he is a most stalwart retired Coast Guard member, a commander with a heart of gold. He is the type of person who publicly acknowledges and brings out the best in others and challenges those around him to excel. He shared how happy he was to have found a recording of music, Pachelbel’s Canon in D, produced by his late wife and found after searching for ten years. It brought tears to him and his children’s eyes. He shared how a friend also just found a minute-long recording of her.
We heard from every other member, from sadness for a recently deceased member, gratitude for guests in attendance, and even about the kami (or divine spirit a la Shinto-ism) of a member’s refrigerator, who kept it working till the day before the new fridge was scheduled to arrive. There were jokes and laughter interspersed. One guest commented on the fun we were having and suggested they were moving to Sebastopol to join our rag-tag bunch. My feeling of interdependence in my people was reinforced.
Right after the meeting ended, my feeling of connection to my club grew suddenly, more than I previously experienced. Do you ever get that deep visceral sense that you are doing the right thing? That you are where you need to be, doing what you need to do, in the moment? Some call it the flow-state or being in the zone. It is like all things suddenly are very real and present, as if nothing else exists.
This is what happened to me. I turned to my friend, my guest, and asked what community work is important to him. He talks about a group he recently heard of, that unites Sonoma County’s lowest-paid domestic workers and their allies to fight to end poverty conditions and the government policies that create them. I inform him that a long-time club member works day and night for that group and introduce them. I share how most of us are independently working on a project or two to make the community better, and we also come together to do the same on bigger projects as a group.
As I say this, all around are quick conversations by different members and guests, efficiently moving the needle forward on each of their projects. I catch words here and there, sensing enough to know that I am surrounded by an incredibly diverse group of individual leaders. It is a beautiful moment, a tapestry of community collaboration that feeds both individual projects and collective efforts, such as helping children of the world, which is Kiwanis’ mission.
As I tell my friend this observation about how we are all leaders, I simultaneously sense all of the other local service clubs and organizations doing similar work for “community interdependence.” These include the Sebastopol Grange #306, Lions Club of Sebastopol, Rotary Club of Sebastopol, Rotary Club of Sebastopol Sunrise, Sebastopol Masons, Order of the Eastern Star, St Stephens Episcopal Church, Sebastopol Christian Church, Community Church of Sebastopol, and numerous others. Many of these groups already meet quarterly as part of the Sebastopol Service and Action Coalition.
For a sweet moment, I feel that it will all work out, grateful that so many give of themselves daily to make the world a better place, one project at a time.
This is an edited version of Craig Litwin’s first essay on his new Substack, in which he describes himself as “a ‘relocalizer,’ former mayor, nonprofit staff/board member and a cofounder of the giving circle SW100.org, vice president of the Sebastopol Grange and past president of Kiwanis Club of Sebastopol.
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burying the lede?
"All of these service clubs, however, face a similar challenge—many of their members are aging, and a lot of folks around town are wondering how anything is going to get done without them. All are actively looking for new members."