As the 2017 firestorm swept through Sonoma County and left thousands displaced, hundreds of altruistic Petalumans rushed to lend a hand. They staffed overwhelmed shelters, sorted through a deluge of donations and prepared hot meals for their displaced neighbors.
After a while, those early, chaotic weeks quieted. Flames were snuffed out, shelters closed and by early 2018, many people returned to their old routines.
But Tatiana Dubinin and her five kids kept showing up.
“At first, we really felt like we were doing something useful and distracting us from the bad news during such a scary time,” Dubinin said. “Then after that ended, we started asking, what else can we do?”
Since 2019, the family has spent nearly every Friday morning at the Petaluma Salvation Army, 721 S. McDowell Blvd., studiously organizing donated items and assembling bags of food for community members in need. With the exception of a few holidays, the Dubinins haven’t missed a shift.
For the Salvation Army, the reliable help from the Dubinins amid the pandemic has been critical to keeping operations afloat, Corps Officer Major Mitham Clement said. Over the past year, food insecurity has skyrocketed, as volunteers now craft grocery bags for 400 families a week, double pre-pandemic levels.
In honor of their above-and-beyond commitment, Petaluma Salvation Army staff and board members recently honored the local family with its Alden Hennings Volunteer of the Year Award for their service last year.
“It was very unexpected, we don’t really feel like we’re doing something that glamorous or worth acknowledging,” Dubinin said of the honor. “We feel like it’s something so normal for us. We are honored, but an award is not why we do it.”
Dubinin and her five kids – Alexandra, 25; George, 20; Deanna, 18; Victoria, 16; and 9-year-old Julianna – first volunteered with the organization in 2017, and continued to intermittently drop in to provide assistance early into the following year. When George Dubinin began searching for an Eagle Scout project summer 2018, he went straight to the Salvation Army, which soon morphed into a regular family volunteering effort.
Although it began as a way to process the grief and stress of the 2017 fires, Tatiana said she now uses the weekly visits to remind her children of the importance of service and community.
“I am first generation, I am Ukrainian, and I came to this country in my early 20s. My philosophy throughout my entire life has been to work hard,” Tatiana said. “It’s very important for me as a mom to teach the kids not to feel like they are entitled. They have to serve. It’s very important that they feel like they’re part of the community, and that they are helping each other.”
With the two eldest now off at college and her husband, Thomas Dubinin, often traveling for work, Tatiana regularly takes her three younger children on Fridays. It’s both a break in their home-schooling schedule and a type of hands-on service learning, Tatiana says.
While the volunteer schedule has become routine for the family, it still perplexes some, including Deanna’s Santa Rosa Junior College classmates.
“They often ask ‘why,’ like they don’t understand it,” Deanna said. “But I really enjoy it. We connect as a family in a different way. At home, we’re messing around with each other, but it’s different to work with your family. You learn to communicate in a workplace but we also get to spend time together.”
Clement, with the Salvation Army, said even in Petaluma, where he is routinely astounded by the high number of regular volunteers and community support, the Dubinins stand out.
“This family comes pretty much every week,” he said. “And not only that, when we ask for anything beyond their normal commitment, they show up and do it. They don’t do it for the Army or for me. They do it out of love for service and for love and the community.”
(Contact Kathryn Palmer at kathryn.palmer@arguscourier.com, on Twitter @KathrynPlmr.)
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