Author Spotlight
Ada Lillie Worthington
“Rock the boat, don’t tip the boat over
Rock the boat, don’t rock the boat baby
Rock the boat, don’t tip the boat over
Rock the boat, woo!”
Stationed inside the gymnasium entrance of East, filled with student volunteers holding inflatable lobsters, it was head organizer John Trewolla’s tradition to greet every customer of the International Club’s Lobster Sale with this tune sung by his mechanical lobster. Perched on a plastic rock, the lobster wiggled its 10 legs to the beat.
This was just one of the ways Trewolla made the annual sale special. He made the lobster-designed signs that lined Mission Rd., leading the customers right to the gymnasium entrance and made personal connections with his customers while handling their orders.
The lobster sale has been raising money for exchange students’ expenses, such as prom, yearbooks and other necessities, every year since the 60s — even COVID-19 didn’t shut the sale down. That’s how much drive and passion Trewolla put in for the sale each year.
After over 15 years of organizing the lobster sale, Trewolla was diagnosed with stage 4 liver cancer this September. He passed away on Sept. 29 surrounded by his family. Without the passion and proactive nature of Trewolla and his singing lobster, this year’s lobster sale was canceled.
“We had no idea he was sick, so I didn’t realize that [the save the date emails] hadn’t gone out yet,” International Club sponsor and history teacher Brenda Fishman said. “We got to the point where we could throw this together concurrently, or we could just wait.”
Trewolla sold his first lobster in the early 2000s after his wife and former East teacher Shelly Trewolla asked him to help with the lobster sale. They hosted many exchange students over the years — two from Germany, one from France and one from Ukraine — who helped set up the sale with Fishman. Soon after, he was running the operation.
“John kept the spreadsheet of all of our customers, the number of lobsters that they ordered and any extra things: lobster bibs, crackers, forks and other specialty items for the lobsters,” Fishman said. “Then he’d let Gus [another head organizer of the lobster sale] and I know how many lobsters [had] been ordered so we’d know ahead of time how many to prepare for and then contact the lobster company in [Massachusetts].”
During his retirement from his engineering job, John didn’t just help with the lobster sale, but found volunteer opportunities all around Kansas City, like The Micah Ministry and Mely’s Yogurt & Ice Cream’s holiday auction.
“I just think everybody needs to be aware of the fact that the community is always better when the citizens are involved in social and city opportunities,” Shelly Trewolla told the Shawnee Mission Post. “The city can’t afford to pay people to run VillageFest or Jazz Fest, it takes a lot of volunteers to do those things.”
John didn’t just want recognition as the “lobster sale man,” according to his fellow head organizer of the sale and close friend, Gus Meyer. He believed in something bigger than a legacy.
“He believed in the lobster sale,” Meyer said. “He believed in the students and faculty of Shawnee Mission East. And he believed the good that [the lobster sale] was doing, giving everybody involved in the lobster sale, international club and exchange student program some wonderful life opportunities.”
This is why, time after time, John came back to the sale. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t hosting any exchange students from East anymore or that he’d never eaten a lobster in his life, he did the lobster sale to help provide a future to the students.
“John was just a very caring person,” Meyer said. “He was more interested in doing something that was fun, and really helped the school and community. That was John. He was all about helping people and giving people opportunities.”
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