When it comes to hard news, the most fortunate event this year was the one that didn’t happen: there were no wildfires. But with impactful issues of local political organization and the need for development spurring contentious debate, not to mention a pandemic claiming lives while shuttering businesses, it’s important to remember there was a softer side to news in Windsor in 2021.
This “year-in-review” recounts the stories of the year that won’t cause blood pressure to skyrocket — think art, student activities, community events and only one major item of controversy: a holiday toy drive.
Although not to be installed until after the roundabout at Windsor Road and Windsor River Road is completed, the Windsor Town Council approved an art project to be installed in the circular central median upon completion. The council selected a design previously approved by the public arts advisory committee and designed in collaboration with WRT, LLC, and will feature vertical slices of cut, local stone and interactive LED lights.
A group of locals held an Easter parade through the town from 3 to 5 p.m. on Saturday, March 27, having decided to do so despite COVID restrictions. The parade featured a judge and photographer at route stations to judge entries.
The Windsor Talent Show, a yearly fundraiser for the Windsor Performing Arts Academy (WPAA), adapted to pandemic restrictions by going online. The virtual event featured three-to-five minute, positive, apolitical and family-friendly performances from all over Sonoma County. The proceeds of the event go to providing scholarships for WPAA’s summer musical program and paying for the school’s production costs.
Desks made by local woodworkers were donated to 26 Windsor students in need at a desk giveaway event put on by the Seniors4Students (S4S) initiative March 13. Seniors volunteering for S4S build basic desks for kids who are distance learning but lack a desk to work from at home.
A coalition of nonprofit groups held a free, drive-thru diaper distribution at the Huerta Gymnasium March 28, with a few changes from the 2020 event, which served nearly 300 families and caused traffic problems. The 2021 distribution included volunteer traffic coordinators and signs to ease traffic. Event organizer Angélica Núñez, director of Día de los Muertos Windsor, said local nonprofits had identified a growing need for supplies among families struggling with the pandemic.
The Windsor Parks and Recreation Department held a COVID-safe egg hunt on the Windsor Town Green April 4. The Town Green Eggs-perience Scavenger Hunt saw families hunting for eggs of all shapes and sizes hidden around the Green.
Two public art installations came to Windsor in May, with “the piano project,” which saw 14 designed and painted pianos placed around the town. The second was a utility box painting program called Discovering Windsor through art that saw utility boxes around town painted with the theme of “Community Healing.”
Leaving the Town of Windsor no ability to object, Sonoma County leased the Holiday Inn on Old Redwood Highway as a temporary homeless shelter, according to a SoCoNews report May 12. The hotel was converted into a “temporary non-congregate shelter site” to offer temporary shelter to unhoused individuals at high-risk of serious complications from coronavirus infection. Town Manager Ken MacNab said the county was exempted from local land use controls and the town was not party to agreements between the county and the private property owner.
Windsor celebrated LGBTQIA+ Pride Month in June 2021. The Town of Windsor raised the pride flag at the Civic Center flagpoles June 1, the town council declared June Pride Month at their June 2 meeting and North Bay LGBTQIA+ Families and Sonoma County Pride hosted a Family Friendly Hike at Foothills Park June 13.
In August, the Windsor Unified School District announced its free and reduced-priced meal benefits for the 2021-22 school year. The district has been providing free daily breakfast and lunch to all students this school year, after changes in state law guaranteed all students have access to free meals.
A new Charlie Brown statue was installed on the Windsor Town Green Aug. 26, just in time for the town’s first Summer Nights on the Green concert. Councilmembers introduced the artist, Amber Rankin, who grew up in Windsor.
The 8th annual Chili Cook-Off returned to Windsor for the 20th anniversary of September 11 in 2021. The event featured live music, activities and, of course, the chili contest, with proceeds benefiting the Windsor Chamber of Commerce and the World War II Memorial planned on the Town Green.
In mid-September, the Windsor Museum and Historical Society dedicated a plaque in front of the historical Cunningham house, a cabin established in Windsor in 1847.
On Oct. 20, students from Windsor’s middle and elementary schools rode to school despite the rain as part of the year’s first Walk and Roll to School Day. Teachers led students from the Town Green to either Brooks Elementary School or Windsor Middle School, with a similar event held Nov. 3.
Students, first responders, town officials and other community members gathered in downtown Windsor Oct. 28 to view a mural commemorating firefighters and others who defended the town from the Kincade Fire in 2019. The mural, painted by students at Bay Art Academy, depicts the disaster and recovery, and was painted during classroom closures at the time of the fire.
Día de los Muertos Windsor held its first festivities in two years in October, the celebration having been cancelled in 2020 because of COVID and 2019 because of the Kincade Fire. The celebration, which featured decorations and activities on the Green throughout the month and a larger celebration on Oct. 30, was aptly titled “Entierra la Pandemica,” which translates to “Bury the Pandemic.”
Mattie Washburn Elementary School also resumed its customary Halloween celebration after two years of cancellations, with students donning costumes and marching around Pleasant Park as part of the Halloween Parade Oct. 29. Flanked by faculty and staff dressed as “Where’s Waldo,” 500 preschool-through-second-grade students wore costumes like Mario, the Mandalorian, any number of princesses, Maleficent, Link from the Legend of Zelda, classics like witches, ninjas and superheroes, and one very melancholic Charlie Brown.
In a third Windsor Halloween celebration, 800 children participated in the Parks and Recreation Department’s Trick-or-Treat Trail event Oct. 30 at Keiser Park. The Trick-or-Treat Trail was designed as a way to provide a COVID-safe trick-or-treating alternative for families from Windsor and the surrounding area, as well as a chance for businesses and community members to engage with the community.
A conflict over the Sonoma County Fire District’s role in hosting toy bins for the Windsor Kiwanis Club’s annual food and toy drive that left one club member to picket a fire station in Windsor was ultimately resolved, with all parties ready to put the emphasis back on working together to get gifts to local kids by Christmas. The Kiwanis Club drive has traditionally donated toys collected in Windsor to families in Windsor, however, due to the Windsor Fire Department having been consolidated into the Sonoma County Fire District, which serves a broader area than just Windsor.
Día de los Muertos Windsor, Chicano Truckin and the Windsor Service Alliance also hosted a competing toy drive serving the Windsor community for the first time in 2021.
Finally, believers of the Virgin of Guadalupe made their way from downtown Santa Rosa to Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in Windsor Dec. 12, despite unstoppable rain and a hit-and-run that left a man — and a horse — injured.
