There’s an old saying in wine country that we have two evening rush hours. One when everyone leaves work and the other at 7PM when everyone heads back out to their community meetings.

The intersection of 3rd Street and Jefferson in Napa. Franklin Street in Fort Bragg. Broadway running through Sonoma. The scene is the same. Cars filled with locals. Each volunteering their time to help make our community a little better by ensuring their seniors get hot meals, their libraries get new books, their drinking water remains safe or their kids get new ball fields.

It’s hard to find someone who isn’t either on the board of a non-profit or else helping to plan the next community fundraiser for a group
in need.

This spirit is one of the many qualities of a region whose strength and beauty is expressed daily in its diversity as well as in its common threads.

I’m honored to represent California’s First Congressional District, which includes seven counties stretching from the small farm towns of the Sacramento River Delta to the coastal old growth forests along the Oregon border. It takes more than nine hours to drive from Clarksburg in the southern end of the district to Smith River at the northern end.
My colleague in the House of Representatives, Carolyn Maloney, represents the east side of Manhattan. Her district runs from 2nd Street to 96th Street. On a nice day, she could walk it in an hour. In a non-El Niño year, you could walk mine in a month.

I enjoy bringing other members of Congress to Northern California so they can become familiar with our issues. You can read about Mendocino, Sonoma and Napa Counties in books. But until you actually spend time in each community, you can’t truly appreciate the little things that bring them together and those that proudly distinguish each from the other.

The wine communities in each county are noted around the globe for their generosity. Each holds an annual wine auction in the summer to raise money for local charities. Each showcases some of the world’s highest premium wines and gourmet food. Just don’t make the mistake of confusing one for another. There’s a healthy and longstanding rivalry between the camps to distinguish themselves between an evening of celebrities and pomp, and one of frivolity and fun.

Festivals? Sonoma has some unique ones. It’s home to the Healdsburg Jazz Festival, Cloverdale’s Black Bart Festival and even a Women’s Goddess Festival celebrating fun ways to empower both the young and old. And in a never ending effort to show off its lighter side, Sonoma is home to the annual Kenwood Pillow Fights which celebrate each Independence Day with bed races, a parade and a community pillow fight which takes place in the mud.

Mendocino distinguishes itself with the world’s largest annual salmon barbeque, and it has an unparalleled artist community with skilled craftspeople and unique galleries, as well as the historic lighthouses and great outdoor recreation.

And the Napa Valley, where I was born, raised and still live, shows off its uniqueness with our annual Mustard Festival every winter, St. Helena’s Hometown Pet Parade and a community event called Hands Across the Valley that is held each year at Francis Ford Coppola’s winery that features a celebrity pizza toss and raises millions of dollars for local food banks.

It was around the 5th grade when I learned that there are 435 congressional districts in our country, each having the same number of people. It would be nearly forty years later until I would learn first-hand how truly unique each district could be, one from the next.
Somehow I doubt they have an Independence Day community pillow fight on the Upper East Side.

U.S. Representative Mike Thompson represents California’s First Congressional District, which includes Napa and six other Northern California counties. He is a native of St. Helena.