RoundUp: Après holiday catch-up
Free holiday dinner, Sebastopol Ready and handheld radios, holiday elves and more
The Rotary Club of Sebastopol Sunrise held its massive, annual, free Christmas dinner
Text and photos by Rollie Atkinson
Almost 600 people were served meals and other Christmas Day treats this year by the volunteers and members of the Rotary Club of Sebastopol Sunrise at the annual Community Christmas Dinner at the Sebastopol Community Church. Besides the turkey and all the fixings, the Rotary Club also handed out toys and warm coats collected by many Sebastopol residents. Kids got to choose gifts from a wide variety of toys from the Gold Ridge Fire Department toy drive and the countywide Toys For Tots program.
The annual event always has drawn a large community crowd that this year included many families, seniors, homeless folks, and others looking to share not only the food but the gathered holiday cheer. Holiday music was provided by Mr. Music (Jim Corbett) and friends, and Santa Claus was able to make a brief appearance on his busiest day of the year.
Sebastopol Ready and handheld radios
The city-owned website, SebastopolReady.org, received a refresh recently, providing information on resources and programs available to help you prepare for emergencies. The mission of the volunteer-run site is “neighbors helping neighbors.”
The Meet Your Neighbors (MYN) program, which was hosted on SebastopolReady while it was a city-funded program, became Meet Your Neighbors West County (MYNWC) in 2025 after it joined with the Gravenstein Health Action Coalition. It now serves all of west county as a nonprofit program. Here is the link to MYNWC website.
Information about the Sebastopol Neighborhood Communications Unit (SNCU) that manages emergency radio communications, Sebastopol’s evacuation zones along with emergency preparedness programs from the County such as CERT can now be found on SebastopolReady.org.
As it says on SebastopolReady.org, Sebastopol area residents and neighborhoods have been adopting and implementing MYN (and using radios) for several years now. These efforts have been led by Skip Jirrels, now the director of MYNWC.
How having a radio can be handy
Skip alerted me to a practical example of how neighbors help neighbors during a recent power outage. I contacted Janet Webb, who organizes a radio group on Lynch Road, and Blake Rushmore, who have GMRS radios which they turned on and tuned in to Channel 7. What follows was an email exchange:
Janet wrote:
It happened rather spontaneously. I got out my radio soon after the lights went off the second time and said “monitoring.” Blake (Rushmore) responded and told me how widespread it was. Then Ginny (Matheson) joined in followed by Skip. We chatted a bit until the power came back on.
Blake Rushmore wrote:
There hasn’t been a disaster in the short time I’ve lived in this neighborhood full-time, but we have used our radios during at least two power outages. Both occurred at night, in an area with poor cell reception, on a dark road with narrow shoulders and fast-moving traffic. On both occasions people in one area, due to proximity to the event or a better cell signal, were able to provide information such as Janet shared.
Janet added:
It was not pre planned but rather shows we are starting to automatically think about radios when an event occurs. I was surprised that more folks from across town did not join in.
Skip wrote:
One of things I was struck by at the outset of the radio use was Ginny expressing her concern about the power outage and Janet stepping in and letting her know ‘she was not alone’ and others were experiencing the outage too. Ginny responded with something similar to feeling better or safe and then stayed in the conversation.
Blake added:
In a previous incident, a large tree fell across the road, which knocked out both power and Internet. Emergency responders shut down traffic in both directions, which prevented residents on the far sides of the closure from getting a clear picture of what happened. Four or five households were able to able to turn on their radios to share assessments of what happened, and whether there were ongoing risks such as downed wires (there were!).
If you’d like to learn more about radio communications, visit the SebastopolReady.org website for more information or write sncu.info@gmail.com. The SNCU group holds a monthly radio check-in at 7 pm on the first Monday of the month on Channel 7 (7 on 7). The next check-in is January 5th.
The last holiday photo of the year
We couldn’t let this holiday season pass away into the new year without posting this photo of Marie Melchor and friends in elf costumes that Marie sewed herself. That is what we call “getting into the spirit.”
A double dose of Sebastopol Police Logs, Dec. 8-21
The following are crimes excerpted from the Sebastopol Police Department's daily crime log entries and listed at the time the alleged violation was reported.
MONDAY, DEC. 8
8:24 a.m. Battery on a person (misdemeanor) at Main Street. Suspect arrested.
2:37 p.m. Battery on a person (misdemeanor) at Main Street. Investigation suspended, leads exhausted.
TUESDAY, DEC. 9
10:17 a.m. Trespassing with damage to property, obstructing business, and lodging without an owner’s consent (misdemeanors) at Gravenstein Highway North. Suspect arrested.
8:02 p.m. Assault with a deadly weapon that was not a firearm (felony), possession of a controlled substance and unlawful paraphernalia, violation of probation, exhibiting a deadly weapon other than a firearm (misdemeanors), and served with a misdemeanor arrest warrant for an outside agency at Sebastopol Avenue. Suspect arrested.
THURSDAY, DEC. 11
10 a.m. Obtaining more than $400 under false pretenses (felony) at Edman Way. Investigation suspected, leads exhausted.
3:44 p.m. Cruelty with intimidation of an elderly dependent adult (misdemeanor) at Gravenstein Highway South. Charges unfounded.
SATURDAY, DEC. 13
2:45 p.m. Shoplifting (felony) at Sebastopol Avenue. Pending further information.
SUNDAY, DEC. 14
10:56 p.m. Possession of a controlled substance and unlawful paraphernalia (misdemeanors), and served with felony and misdemeanors arrest warrants for an outside agency, at Morris Street. Suspect arrested.
TUESDAY, DEC. 16
8:41 a.m. Disorderly conduct involving alcohol (misdemeanor) at Keating Avenue. Suspect arrested.
10:01 a.m. Causing corporal injury to a child (misdemeanor) at Valentine Avenue. Charges unfounded.
THURSDAY, DEC. 18
2:41 a.m. Driving while under the influence of alcohol with a blood alcohol content of at least 0.08 percent (misdemeanors) at Sebastopol Avenue. Suspect arrested.
8:14 a.m. Served a misdemeanor arrest warrant at South Main Street. Suspect arrested.
2:39 p.m. Burglary, passing a fictitious check with the intent to defraud, conspiracy to commit a crime and identity theft (felonies) at South Main Street. Suspect arrested.
5:59 p.m. Battery on a person and defrauding an innkeeper of less than $950 (misdemeanors) at Healdsburg Avenue. Referred to District Attorney for review.
FRIDAY, DEC. 19
5:45 a.m. Vandalism involving defacing property (misdemeanor) at Bodega Avenue. Pending further investigation.
3:09 p.m. Petty theft (misdemeanor) at Bodega Avenue. Pending further investigation.
SATURDAY, DEC. 20
5:35 p.m. Causing a corporal injury to a child (misdemeanor) at West Hills Circle. Charges unfounded.
OTHER POLICE ACTION
The Sebastopol Police Department also recorded 159 events requiring police action during the period, such as lost animals, assisting citizens, parking violations, foot patrol, traffic hazards and reckless driving.
The week of Dec. 22-27
All this week, we’ve been publishing essays from our Personal Essay Contest.
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