Events

Join In! Try it out!

On Thursday May 14, 2009, tens of thousands of residents from all corners of the Bay Area will put their car keys
aside, grab their helmets, and hop on their bicycles and ride to work. How about Sebastopol?!

Check out the Sebastopol "Energizer Stations" map here (pdf).

Visit the Bike to Work web site here.

When is Bike to Work Day?
What Happens on Bike to Work Day?
Why Bike to Work?
How many people in the Bay Area commute to work by bike everyday?
Do I need to register for Bike to Work Day?

Please note: The event time has been moved forward to 6pm to allow attendees to leave and attend the Sebastopol Town Hall on Water Conservation at 7pm. Read details of the Town Hall event here.

We're on the precipice of global disasters of our own making that could forever undermine our ability to survive and thrive on this planet. But we're also on the threshold of awesome and entirely unexpected possibilities that could unleash our largely hidden potential.
 
For this to happen, we will need to talk plainly with each other about the seemingly bewildering situation we face, and quickly make some very clear decisions together.

Join Transition Sebastopol and Special Guests Michael Brownlee (Transition Boulder County) & David Johnson (Transition Portland) for this powerful introduction to the inspiring Transition movement, and learn how you can become involved in helping our community to carve out a pathway to freedom from fossil fuel dependence and to develop local resilience and self-reliance in the face of global crises.

Water is a precious and limited resource. Conserving water helps to maintain this resource, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global climate change.

The City of Sebastopol will present a Town Hall to discuss the conservation of water, both inside and outside your home. We will also present home products designed to conserve water. The meeting will focus on ways in which City residents and businesses can help meet our 2009 Voluntary Water Conservation Goal: to reduce water usage by 15% from the past 10-years’ average.

The forum will feature 3 speakers who will discuss techniques to help you improve water usage. Dave Leff will discuss the interior, Rick Taylor will cover the yard and exterior areas, and Mike Bishop will demonstrate products from Sebastopol Hardware.

After the presentations, we will have an open forum.

The Town Hall is FREE and refreshments will be served.

Leading the meeting will be Mayor Sarah Glade Gurney and Council Member Kathleen Shaffer.

Location:
Park Side School
in the Multi Purpose Room which faces Washington Avenue.
7450 Bodega Ave
Sebastopol (see map below)

Hope to see you there,

Kathleen Shaffer

View Larger Map

This is the kick-off event for the Sonoma County Health Initiative Program that encourages walking as a regular part of a healthful, carbon-lite lifestyle.  iWALK is the first of several Health Action initiatives featuring physical activities, healthy eating, and preventive medical care.

Sebastopol's iWALK features a circular walking tour of Sebastopol, with 5 scheduled starting points along a 6.3 mile loop.  Walkers are encouraged to walk to a neighborhood starting point, where a Community Leader will guide them along the route, picking up new walkers and leaders along the way. 

Start your walk as early as 9 AM for the morning circuit or as late as 12:25 PM from Ives Park for the afternoon circuit. Choose to walk the entire loop and end at your starting point or choose to walk just one segment. Pack a lunch or snack, water, sunscreen, and hat. Restrooms are available along the route.  Walkers are welcome to leave the walk at any time for a shorter journey.

Walking celebrities, Richard and Brenda Nichols, will escort the group the whole way, all day. 

Here is the route [also detailed on the attached flyer and map]:

1.  Sebastopol Downtown Plaza at 9 AM, departs 9:15 AM
Greeting by Mayor Sarah Gurney, with co-leader City ManagerJack Griffin

2.  Analy High School 10:15 AM [2 miles] at the crosswalk to the West County Trail on High School Road
Susan Olson, Director of the Sebastopol Independent Charter School

3.  O'Reilly & Associates 10:45 AM [1.1 miles (3.1)] at the plaza between the buildings
Jim Corbett, aka Mr. Music and 2009 Citizen of the Year

4.  Libby Park 11:45AM [1.5 miles (4.6)] at the Gazebo
Lix Schott, Principal of Pinecrest Elementary School

5.  Ives Park 12:25 PM [1.4 miles (6.0)] on the steps on Willow Avenue
Carla Swartz, Board Member of Sebastopol Chamber of Commerce

The walk continues to the Plaza [.3 miles (6.3)] and around to the all starting points listed above.  We'll have a short lunch break before continuing, with the final drop-off at Ives Park around 3:30 PM.

If you have any questions, contact Richard Nichols at 823-4071.

Saturday, May 16, Salmon Creek School, 1935 Bohemian Hwy in Freestone

Join Transition Sebastopol for A Celebration of All Things Fermented
A Catalytic Community Celebration Joining Culture with Agriculture

Featuring crafters of the fermented arts, farmers, neighborhood health care & volunteer organizations (such as Transition Sebastopol!!)

Come join us at our next Transition Sebastopol Movie Night at the French Garden Restaurant!

We are inviting members of the local CSA & farming community to join us in our post movie lively discussion!

Guests include: Paul Kaiser from Singing Frog Farm, Dan Smith of the French Garden Restaurant & Farm, Nathan Boone from First Light Farm, Laurel Anderson, farm manager at Salmon Creek Middle School.

Screening: The Real Dirt on Farmer John

Follows Farmer John’s astonishing journey from farm boy to counter-culture rebel to the son who almost lost the family farm to a beacon of today’s booming organic farming movement and founder of one of the nation’s largest Community Supported Agriculture farms. The result is a tale that ebbs and flows with the fortunes of the soil and revealingly mirrors the changing American times. At once funny and stirring, what drives the film’s powerful appeal is the way in which it digs up “real dirt” not only about the tragedy of losing our traditional American family farms but about what really makes for an original American life - one lived, on a man’s own terms, in balance with the land, through hardships and unexpected triumphs, with creativity and verve.

Watch the trailer here.

FREE EVENT
~donations appreciated as a screening
fee applies to the showing of this film~

Location:
The French Garden Restaurant
8050 Bodega Avenue, Sebastopol (map)

Local Agriculture • Local Economies • Neighborhood Revival • Social Justice • Green Jobs

Training for Transition

download a printable flyer here

The Transition movement is a set of inspiring ideas for creating an attractive and enticing vision of how our communities could be. The converging crises of climate change and oil depletion cannot be solved separately, and they cannot be solved with technological miracles, but only by lessening our dependence on fossil fuels.
This doesn’t mean a bleaker future. The heart of transition is the belief that if we engage with enough imagination and ingenuity to unlock the collective genius of our communities, we can choose a future that is more satisfying, just and sustainable than what we have now.

Participants in the training will:
•    explore the opportunities for personal and social transformation presented by the challenges of peak oil, climate change and economic instability
•    learn the key concepts of the Transition model, including how to set up and foster successful Transition groups
•    understand how to raise awareness of the need for transition through public talks and events
•    form contacts with other change leaders in your local area
•    establish a plan of action for yourself and your community

Trainers:
Kat Steele is a permaculture activist, designer, educator and founder of the Urban Permaculture Guild in Oakland, CA. She facilitates workshops on ecological design, sustainability and permaculture as well as publicly speaks about eco-social design, city repair and the power of placemaking.

Scott McKeown is the initiator and current chairperson of Transition Sebastopol, which is the 9th official Transition initiative in the US. Scott has been a community organizer for over 30 years, a Marketing Director of three high tech companies, and from 2003 to 2007 was the Executive Director of the thirty-thousand person attended Harmony Festival in Santa Rosa, California.

Bill Aal has been a trainer and organizer for the past 20 years, helping communities with diverse populations transform to be more just and sustainable. He has been involved with social and environmental justice movements for more than 20 years, with particular focus both on agricultural sustainability and social healing.

Location:
@ The Humanist Hall
390 27th Street
Oakland, CA 94612

Cost:
$215 before May 15th
$235 after May 15th

To register, please visit: http://www.regonline.com/transitiontowntraining

This 4-mile circular route will take walkers from the Plaza through flower-filled neighorhoods, including a chance to walk through some of the lovely, private backyard gardens along the way.

Leaders: Kathy Oetinger & Nick Kishmirian.

Download the full 2009 Sebastopol Walks schedule here.

Like to excercise & create community at the same time? The Sebastopol Walks series is a great way of doing both!

You can also visit the iWALK site which lists other scheduled Sonoma County walks and allows you to add to the calendar, too!

Join the West County Community Seed Library project for the first Seed and Plant exchange. Please bring clean seed or plants you want to share. Sara McCamant will teach an "Introduction to Seed Saving" class from 10:30-11:30, which will review the basic protocol for growing out clean seed to share. Seed and Plant exchange and Local Food potluck will follow class. (read more about the Sonoma County Community Seed Library below)

What you could bring:
… Plants or seeds to share
… Coin envelopes
… Books or resources for sharing with others
… Local food potluck item!

Location:
Salmon Creek School Garden
1935 Bohemian HWY
Occidental

View Larger Map

About the West County Community Seed Library

Vision:
To create a grassroots community seed bank that supports Sonoma County gardeners with locally grown, open pollinated, pesticide and GMO free seeds. Anyone can become a member of the West County Seed Library, we ask for a donation of $5.00-$20.00 and a commitment to grow out and donate back seed following the library's protocol for growing clean seeds.  No on is turned away for lack of funds.   The West County Seed Library will be housed at the Salmon Creek School Garden and will be open to the public monthly for classes, resource sharing and a seed and plant exchange. The West County Seed Library will have resources available to members on growing and processing seeds.
 
Why save seed and why a local seed bank?
Our rapidly changing world gives us all the more reason to strengthen our local resources and our ability to be self-sufficient.  Local seed saving allows us to cultivate plants that do well in our region, with each generation adapting more to the local environment.   It also lets us preserve heirloom seeds that are being lost as the seed industry is being concentrated into fewer and fewer large corporations.  Seed banks are a great investment; with some plants one seed can return up to 40.000.  The abundance seed savers experience should be shared with the community and helps to model a different economic system.    We hope to cultivate a network of seed savers in the region to support each other and the seed library, which will be a resource for the expanding community of gardeners and help strengthen our local food system.

For more information contact Sara McCamant 829-5234 or saramc@emeraldearth.org 

Local Agriculture • Local Economies • Neighborhood Revival • Social Justice • Green Jobs

Training for Transition

download a printable flyer here

The Transition movement is a set of inspiring ideas for creating an attractive and enticing vision of how our communities could be. The converging crises of climate change and oil depletion cannot be solved separately, and they cannot be solved with technological miracles, but only by lessening our dependence on fossil fuels.
This doesn’t mean a bleaker future. The heart of transition is the belief that if we engage with enough imagination and ingenuity to unlock the collective genius of our communities, we can choose a future that is more satisfying, just and sustainable than what we have now.

Participants in the training will:
•    explore the opportunities for personal and social transformation presented by the challenges of peak oil, climate change and economic instability
•    learn the key concepts of the Transition model, including how to set up and foster successful Transition groups
•    understand how to raise awareness of the need for transition through public talks and events
•    form contacts with other change leaders in your local area
•    establish a plan of action for yourself and your community

Trainers:
Kat Steele is a permaculture activist, designer, educator and founder of the Urban Permaculture Guild in Oakland, CA. She facilitates workshops on ecological design, sustainability and permaculture as well as publicly speaks about eco-social design, city repair and the power of placemaking.

Scott McKeown is the initiator and current chairperson of Transition Sebastopol, which is the 9th official Transition initiative in the US. Scott has been a community organizer for over 30 years, a Marketing Director of three high tech companies, and from 2003 to 2007 was the Executive Director of the thirty-thousand person attended Harmony Festival in Santa Rosa, California.

Bill Aal has been a trainer and organizer for the past 20 years, helping communities with diverse populations transform to be more just and sustainable. He has been involved with social and environmental justice movements for more than 20 years, with particular focus both on agricultural sustainability and social healing.

Location:
@ The Humanist Hall
390 27th Street
Oakland, CA 94612

Cost:
$215 before May 15th
$235 after May 15th

To register, please visit: http://www.regonline.com/transitiontowntraining