The Rotary Club of Sebastopol mixed great food and delightful student art at its annual Crab Feed last week.
The event, which supports the club’s Mark Sell Teacher Grant Program that provides $50 to $500 to teachers for projects that are not included in their schools’ budgets, was completely sold out this year. Over 550 diners ate over 1,700 pounds of crab and gallons of chowder in what is now one of the highlights of west county’s crab feed season.
The big event of the evening was the debut of the Crab Art Show. It was designed as an art competition for west county students to show off their artistic skills by creating art works on a crab-related theme.
Every school in west county was invited to submit crab art. Over 400 students took up the challenge, with works coming in from schools all over west county. The styles varied, with crabs of all sizes and shapes. One student even made full use of his free speech rights with a theme a bit contrary to the principal purpose of the evening. His crab had a little cloud about its head with the plea: “Please don’t eat me.”
The competition was divided into two groups — high school students and elementary and middle school students. Zoe Furch of Analy High School won the high school competition, and Alice Aguilar of Monte Rio School won the elementary and middle school competition. Each received a $25 prize and their schools received $100 for art supplies. All the other participating schools received gift cards from Art and Soul in Sebastopol to support their art departments.
Sally Briggs, who teaches art to elementary and middle school students and who helped organize the show, was delighted at the quality of the art: “I can’t believe how many students wanted to participate, and I really am amazed at how good many of the pieces are. The walls were covered with wonderful creations. It was the highlight of the evening.”
— Rotary Club of Sebastopol
