Maggie Swarner age 50, Robert Swarner (husband) age 53, Miles age 17, Arthur age 14
Robert and Maggie met in Santa Cruz in their early twenties around 1996. They met at the Dominican hospital in Santa Cruz, where Maggie was a part time medical records clerk working the night shift and Robert was a paramedic in Santa Cruz County. Maggie’s twin also worked in the hospital, in the emergency room as a receptionist. She is the one who introduced them. They started dating in 2000 and relocated to Sonoma County in 2004. They bought a condo on the town green in Windsor and were married in 2005 in Mendocino. Robert & Maggie had a 3 year plan to leave Sonoma county and get back to friends and family in Santa Cruz, but like so many others, they ended up loving Sonoma County and stayed. They loved how family friendly Windsor is and ended up LOVING living on the town green, with so many fun things to do and lots of friendly people to meet
Maggie Swarner earned her Bachelors in Biology at UC Santa Cruz, a Masters in Natural Science at SJSU as well as a Single Subject Teaching Credential in Biology and CTE credential in Biotechnology. Maggie has been a teacher in high school science since 2001. Because of her CTE credential in Biotechnology she has been teaching honors Biotech, an articulated course (articulated with Solano Community college) on the high school campus. Maggie taught in Santa Cruz at Harbor High and Aptos High, then worked in San Jose for 3 years at Andrew P Hill High school in a Biotech Academy. When they moved to Sonoma County Maggie worked at Montgomery High School for 1 year and then took a position at Maria Carillo High school. She was at MCHS for 10 years and then had the opportunity for a Biology/CTE (Career Technology Education) Biotechnology position at Calistoga Junior Senior High School. She has been teaching Biology, Honors Biotechnology and AVID at CJSHS since 2015.
Robert earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Art from UCSC, and lived in Santa Cruz for 16 years. He worked as a paramedic beginning in 1991, and also worked for Yosemite Search and Rescue (YOSAR) in the summer of 1994 as a climber and rescue tech. It was in Yosemite that Robert got his first taste of helicopters, and after years of talking over options on shifts in the ambulance and on early-morning surf sessions with his paramedic partner, they both began flight school at Sierra Academy of Aeronautics in Oakland in 1998. Robert left Santa Cruz in 2001 to work with REACH air ambulance as a flight paramedic, while continuing to fly as an instructor to earn his hours to switch to flying helicopters instead of working on patients in the back of the helicopter. In 2005, he worked his last shift as a paramedic and began flying full-time in the Gulf of Mexico. In 2007, he returned to helicopter EMS as a helicopter pilot at CALSTAR, then returned to REACH in 2011, where he worked as the Lead Pilot of the Santa Rosa REACH 1 base until 2019. Robert now works in private corporate aviation, flying airplanes and helicopters. As a helicopter instructor, Robert taught the owners of helicopters how to fly them, and in addition to flying the aircraft, he continues to work with the owners as a mentor and instructor.
Maggie is a volunteer as the head GRiT (Girls riding together) coach for Annadel Composite Mountain Bike Team. She has been the head GRiT coach for one season but has been coaching with the A team (Annadel composite) for 3 years. Maggie created several GRiT try out rides for local girls to see if mountain biking is for them and hosted and organized GRiT Bike maintenance clinics with REI for girls in the mountain bike community. She also volunteered to coach the GRiT summer camp in Nevada City last summer and the Winter GRiT camp in Petaluma 2024. Maggie volunteers to help spread the love of mountain biking for girls and to help build independence and confidence and friendships along the way. Maggie raced mountain bikes, road bikes, & cyclocross in her twenties and collegiately (USCS and SJSU) and independent teams. She rode and raced for pure love of the sport and adventure with her twin and her girlfriends. Maggie wants to help younger girls foster a love for sport and adventure and build confidence in a sport that has been dominated by men.
Robert also rides mountain bikes and enjoys making things. Lately he’s been working on the family’s cargo trailer/adventure trailer conversion. You may have seen him around Windsor on his electric unicycle, which he sometimes uses to commute to the airport.
Miles and Arthur have both volunteered for the local food bank. They also volunteer for the Nor Cal race series each season and they both help and volunteer with the CCLA OutRide program and work to fix, repair bikes and teach middle school students basic bike skills, like how to change a flat tire. Both Miles and Arthur have done trail work and maintenance with Redwood Trail Alliance (RTA) and Nor Cal League (part of the National Interscholastic Cycling Association, NICA).
Both Miles & Arthur went to Cali Calmecac Language Academy for K-8 and have a love of Spanish, other cultures and empathy for others. Cali has been one of the greatest reasons for the Swarners to stay in Windsor and Sonoma County.
Miles has been racing mountain bikes for the last 3 years. He mostly races cross country, but his real love is enduro racing. Enduro racing is a combination of timed downhill stages and non timed uphill sections. Miles was nominated to be a team captain for the A team. He is also involved and has a leadership position as the event planner in the Windsor High Bike Club. He is also the Vice President in the Music Club at WHS. Miles is passionate about playing the Viola and will be trying out for the Santa Rosa Youth Orchestra in a couple weeks. Miles applied and was accepted as a California Mountain Bike Ambassador (CAMTB) this year. The CAMTB application was for all of California and Northern Nevada, only 17 ambassadors were accepted. With CAMTB, he is working on community bike related projects to help youth and underserved youth. He is also helping and working with Cali Calmecac Language Academy to help maintain and fix bikes that are used in the school as part of the OutRide program. Miles loves Spanish and Engineering and hopes to pursue both of these and maybe a minor or emphasis in music once in college. Miles also loves wrenching on bikes. He has been working at Spoke Folk since the summer before his freshman year. He loves to learn how things work, take them apart and fix it and put it back together again.
Arthur has been racing mountain bikes since 7th grade. He also loves racing road bikes, his favorite race type is a road race called a Criterium, a series of laps (usually about 1+) miles This type of race requires a lot of sprinting and strategy – like a puzzle but on bikes. He can be found at the local races on Tuesday at the Santa Rosa Fairgrounds, Tuesday Night Twilights. He is excited to get into enduro racing this summer. Arthur started the WHS Bike Club as a freshman this year, Fall of 2023. He wanted this to be a club where all students who love bikes can get together and plan bike rides and community service events. Most of the WHS Bike Club is also currently racing for A team. Currently, Arthur is helping to organize and get volunteers to support the WHS Bike club by volunteering to staff an aid station for the Levi Gran Fondo. Levi GranFondo has offered to donate $400.00 to the WHS Bike club for this work. In addition, both Miles and Arthur will be volunteering for the Festa del Fondo Silent Auction, Levi GranFondo. Arthur is a great mathematician and loves Spanish and Science too. He loves to build, create and solve problems. He also is passionate about music and plays the upright double bass with WHS Orchestra. Arthur also got a job the summer before entering high school at the Bike Shop Windsor. He loves learning about bikes, how to fix problems that come in and is able to use his Spanish skills while at work. Arthur loves hiking and exploring on his own in Foothill and Shiloh parks. He is independent and confident .
Bike riding was just a part of life for the boys growing up. When they were toddlers, Maggie would take them in a double wide stroller, with strider bikes thrown on the top and side of the jogger and run in Foothill. She would get the boys on their strider bikes and when they got too tired, she would get them back in the jogger and throw bikes back on top and sides and keep on running! She was excited and overzealous to get the boys on bikes. Both boys have needed to ride bikes to school since a very early age, basically since kindergarten/first grade when they had the stamina to ride to Cali. They kept riding to Cali when they moved across town. The boys have a love for bikes, commuting and getting others to try biking. As a family, the Swarmers LOVE to ride bikes- any kind of bike!
The Swarners are a cat family and currently have three adorable shelter cats. They are loved and always missed when the family is out of town for any period of time. Pedro, a shy but loving and cuddly cat, is a neighborhood mouser. Pancho, a sweet, timid lab cat who loves to snuggle and sleep in Arthur’s bed. And the latest addition, Oliver, a pandemic kitty – fierce, sassy and always a pest to the older cats but outgoing and loving to anyone who might pet or scratch his head. Ollie is a mouser by night and a napper by day.
The Swarners say that the Windsor community was amazing & welcoming when they first moved here in 2004. Living above the toy shop (now The Bike Shop) they were part of a group of neighbors and had many progressive dinners and “kid parties” in the driveway of the building. They could always count on a neighbor to help with a pet, a sick kid or anything, really.. When they moved to the condos on the town green they didn’t have any family in the county. . The community in their building at the condominiums was their extended family. The Swarners loved the proximity to the library, playground, community garden and farmers market. These were places that they visited daily and weekly. In 2014 they moved into a home in the Hembree Road area. It was nice to have a yard, a little more space to stretch out in and closer access to Foothill park. They have great neighbors now and the boys have friends in the area. Their neighbors are kind, helpful, and welcoming. The Swarners feel they have found a new extended family. The boys take advantage of the proximity to Foothill and can often be found riding mountain bikes in Shiloh or Foothill.
The family are members of the Santa Rosa Ski Club. Maggie has been a board member for over a year and a half. Robert and Maggie have been members for 4 years and the boys are junior members. As part of the SRSC, they are active with other community members who share a love of the outdoors, whether this be skiing, snowboarding, skate skiing, snowshoeing or summer sports such as hiking and mountain biking. The SRSC has a lodge in Truckee. The SRSC lodge has dorm style sleeping rooms and a large family kitchen. As part of the club they participate in events both locally and in Truckee at the SRSC lodge. While at the lodge in Truckee, they all chat and cook together in the evening and enjoy the community, friendships and time spent with other SRSC members. They have made many new friendships through the SRSC.
Swarner Family Mottos:
- Work hard, play hard.
- Too many bikes…said no one ever!
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