I Found My Way Back Through Community Service - Jan Erickson
Journey
This is the third of three stories about Jan Erickson’s relationship with Sonoma.
🟩 I Arrived in Sonoma Without Knowing Anything About It – Chapter 1
🟨 I Planned to Return to Michigan, but I Chose Sonoma – Chapter 2
🟥 I Found My Way Back Through Community Service – Chapter 3 (You are reading this story.)
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Returning to Sonoma Through Service
After a career that often took her outside Sonoma, retirement gave Jan Erickson the opportunity to reconnect with her community. Through education, the arts, Rotary and local nonprofits, she discovered the breadth of service taking place in Sonoma—and found new ways to contribute to the town she calls home.
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I Found My Way Back Through Community Service
Teaching was my first connection to the Sonoma community. It introduced me to students, parents and other educators, but it also led me toward a broader kind of community involvement.
At one point, I worked with the Chamber of Commerce to establish Sonoma’s first business-education roundtable. It was a joint effort between the Chamber and the school district.
We created apprenticeships and internships for high school juniors and seniors. The goal was to help students explore different kinds of work before college so they might have a clearer idea of what they wanted to study. That was my first major community effort.
Much of my later career took me outside Sonoma. I worked in other cities, school districts and with the California Department of Education. Those opportunities were valuable for my career and exposed me to many different experiences, but they also pulled me away from the town where I lived.
When I retired about 14 years ago, I jumped back into the Sonoma community.
I joined the board of Sweetwater Spectrum and served for six years. After that, I became a board member, secretary and then president of the Sonoma Community Center. I also served as president of Sonoma Springs Rotary and became president of its foundation.
My work with the Arts Guild and on an Impact100 grant-review team introduced me to even more of the nonprofit community. I began learning about the remarkable amount of service work taking place in this relatively small town.
Sonoma has changed tremendously since I arrived. The city has grown, and the wider valley now includes people who have come from large cities, corporate careers and many different places. I appreciate that mix of experiences. I also value Sonoma’s Hispanic community and the cultural richness it brings to the town.
Through my involvement with education, nonprofits, service organizations and the arts, I have tried to understand the community more fully and give something back to it.
For me, Sonoma has been a place of growth and learning. Meeting people with different lives and experiences has widened my own view of the world. Being involved in the arts has enriched my life as well—I was a fine arts minor and have always loved the arts.
I raised my children here, built my life here and eventually found my way back into the heart of the community through service.
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Community Involvement Can Be a Continuing Form of Education
Jan’s experience shows that belonging to a community is not a single event. Her connection to Sonoma began through teaching, expanded through partnerships between schools and businesses, and deepened after retirement through nonprofit and civic service.
The organizations changed, but a common purpose connected them: creating opportunities, strengthening community institutions and learning from people with different backgrounds. For Jan, giving back to Sonoma also became a way to keep growing herself.
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This story was created from an interview with Jan Erickson conducted by Don Lundgren. Jan’s words have been edited for length and clarity while preserving her voice, experiences and meaning.
