Community Spotlight

DARIO PAVON | KAT STEWART | CLAYTON LIGHT By Craig Smith

DARIO PAVON

Dario Pavon is passionate about soccer, which he started playing at age three. He has always played at a high level, and from an early age, his goal was to play professionally. His passion for the sport led him to move halfway around the world, from his hometown of Madrid, Spain to Napa.

Dario started college in Spain, while looking for a good offer to play soccer. He didn’t get an offer he liked, so he expanded his search internationally. Erskine College, a liberal arts faith-based institution of 800 with a strong commitment to athletics offered him a full-ride scholarship, which he accepted. Erskine is located in Due West, South Carolina, a town of 1200, and a long, long way from Madrid. “I didn’t know anything about South Carolina,” said Dario. “I thought I knew English, but I didn’t understand what they were saying.” Fortunately, there were a lot of other international students at Erskine, and the small student population was supportive.

When Dario showed up, the soccer team was, well, bad. By his third year, they’d gone from last place to winning the conference title in OT, the best year in the program’s history.

Dario graduated just as COVID hit, and he went back to Madrid and spent a year at home. He next enrolled at Pfeiffer University in Charlotte, North Carolina to pursue a Masters in Strategic Leadership, and of course, to play soccer. A pro team invited him to try out for a spot on the team, but after a month and a half, he wasn’t offered a position.

He was a little discouraged, but Dario doesn’t let much get him down. A friend was moving to Napa to play for Napa Valley 1839 FC, and Dario agreed to join him for the cross-country drive. Watching the team practice, Dario was invited to join the players to scrimmage. After practice, the team owner and coach approached him. “Why don’t you move here and play for us?” he asked. Dario said yes and moved here right away. He’s finishing his Masters online.

Dario has been on NV 1839 FC for three years now. He is the all-time leading scorer, and has played more games than anyone. “I feel like I’m at my best now,” he said. “This year, we will win the nationals.” He both plays and works for the team, and occasionally gets to talk to high school students about his journey, which he loves doing. He started a business, Flair Marketing Solutions (flairms.com), which is doing well. “I know I can’t play soccer forever, and long term, I need to focus on my business.”

Napa feels like home. “I love how warm and kind people are. I can go to a coffee shop, gym, a bar, and people make me feel less lonely.”

Dario has two favorite Napa memories. The first is when his family came to visit and he got to play tour guide. The second memory will last forever – it’s of the host family that brought him to Napa, Arik and Hannah Housley, and their son Alex. They have given him a place to live and have whole heartedly supported his journey. “I am so grateful for them; I can’t put it into words. They are my second family. It is amazing to have people I love who love me.”

KAT STEWART

Half of Kat Stewart’s closet was filled with professional wear for her real estate career, the other half was all yoga clothes for teaching. “I had a vision of myself standing with a briefcase in one hand and a yoga mat in the other,” she said. Her life was busy – too busy, and something had to go.

The something turned out to be the briefcase.

Kat was born in Santa Monica and lived a block from the beach. She loved it, but her Dad moved the family to Carson City, Nevada during her junior year in high school. She was miserable. She began working at a women’s gym, and moved into her own apartment. “I always took aerobics classes,” she said. “One day, the instructor was out, and the rest of the class asked me to teach. I was really nervous, but I did it. And I loved it.”  She was seventeen, and her teaching career had inadvertently begun.

Kat started college in Nevada, but after a year, packed up her Ford Fiesta and drove to Southern California, landing in San Diego.  She might still be there, but as she said, “Love brought me to Napa.”

When she moved here in 1982, Kat went to work at La Cancha Racquetball Health Center. She became the Director of the aerobics program, and planned club events. She loved it all, but her practically-minded Dad nudged her towards real estate. Kat got her license and began that career in 1988. She enjoyed it, but I never stopped teaching classes.

In the early 90’ she moved to Healthquest Fitness Center, expanding from aerobics only to both weight training and stretch classes. As her personal life turned towards the spiritual, she brought meditation into her stretch class, and created a class she called “Body Meditation.” Students loved it.

In the late 90s she took her first Yoga class and had an epiphany.“I felt like I was home, even know I didn’t know what that meant at the time.” After a year-long yoga training in Berkeley, she stopped teaching other classes, and became a yoga instructor.

Her daughter Amber was born 1994. Kat wanted her to get a good education, and became a founding member in the effort to bring a public Waldorf School to Napa. The group succeeded, and Amber started kindergarten at Stone Bridge School when it was still at the Napa Expo. Kat designed and organized a community fundraising event, “The Enchanted Village Faire” which was a huge success and helped stabilize the school’s finances. “The school and Faire are still going strong, which I’m very proud of.”

Around 2015, Kat began to ramp up her yoga offerings, which now include private lessons, groups, tourist and corporate groups, and kids after school programs. She incorporates breath work, chanting and many styles of yoga.

Successful real estate and yoga careers had become too much, and that’s when she had that briefcase/yoga mat vision. Focusing only on Yoga was an easy decision. She retired from real estate in 2018 and now focuses solely on yoga (yogainnapa.com).

“Teaching Yoga is a great joy and service in my life. Living Yoga and creating a life practice is what I wish to inspire. It’s my true passion, and I am, after it’s all said and done, a teacher.”

CLAYTON LIGHT

Every time he leaves the house for his car, Clayton Light stops to take in the view. His family lives on a hill, and he can see vineyards and surrounding hills. “I just love it here. The only thing I miss from Newport, where we lived before, is seeing the ocean. But when I’m there, I really miss the vineyards.”

Clayton is from Yakima, Washington and grew up picking apples and working on a horse ranch. In junior high he took up drumming. His first band did covers of Led Zepplin, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath. His religious parents didn’t like his choice of music at all. “I used to keep my Black Sabbath record in a Chet Atkins album cover to keep them happy,” he said. He might still be a full-time drummer if it wasn’t for Disco. “When Disco was big, no one wanted to hear live music.” If drums were called for, a drum machine was used. “Disco – I still hate it,” said Clayton, with a wry grin on his face.

He began college as a music major, but took two years off to be a youth missionary. He started in Belize, but got very sick and was sent home. “I lost thirty-six pounds in nine days.”

He switched majors to Radio, Television and Motion Pictures, attending Costa Mesa Vanguard University, where he learned to direct film and do lighting and editing. He graduated in 1982 – just as the economy tanked. “There were no jobs. I became a surgical tech for two and a half years, something I never planned on.”

A friend of his had strong ties to Japanese television in LA, and as the economy started to improve, Clayton worked in Japanese television for a couple of years.

He got another gig at Home Savings of America doing training films. “I was shooting video of bar charts. It was just as boring as it sounds. I asked if we could animate the charts, and they agreed. That made it far more interesting for me.”

This was when the MacIntosh computer came on the scene, followed by the release of

numerous film editing and animation software programs. Clayton taught himself all of it. He became an independent producer, and did work for Carl’s Jr., and later for VideoStore Magazine, for whom he did celebrity interviews. “When a motion picture went to video, I would produce entertainment industry announcements.” He did dozens of interviews, including Charlton Heston, Freddie Krueger (Robert Englund in makeup and costume), Elvira, Lena Horne, Richard Simmons and Marie Osmond.

He was recommended to an agency to produce car commercials, where he broke his own cardinal rule. “I started dating the woman I worked for,” he said. The ad agency Producer, Lynn Splendid, eventually left the agency, and the two formed their own firm, SplendidLight. Lynn is a Napa native, and the new agency started getting many winery contracts. Their first, was Robert Mondavi.

Lynn and Clayton have been working in Napa since the 80s. The two married in ’92, and moved to here in 2009. They have three children – Ashley, Rory and Gianna (Gigi). Clayton joined a financial software company in 2016. Together, today they operate Motion Barn, a video and animation company. Napa is, and will remain, home.

“I feel incredibly lucky,” he said. “I’ve ended up with a life people dream of, and it all just fell into my lap.”