After several decades, the lobsters may no longer be landing at Shawnee Mission East.

The SM East International Club may have hosted its final Lobster Landing, an annual lobster sale, last month.

The several thousand dollars from the annual lobster sale — which flies in fresh, live lobsters from Maine — helps organize student exchange programs, both bringing foreign students to SM East and sending Lancers abroad.

Brenda Fishman, a history teacher and the SM East International Club sponsor who has helped organize the event since 1990, said the lobster sale dates back to when the school opened in the 1960s.

Fishman said she and Gus Meyers, a parent organizer for the sale, have yet to decide whether there will be a lobster sale in 2024.

Fresh seafood in Kansas City used to be ‘unusual’

• Fishman said when the lobster sale was first started in the 1960s, fresh lobster in the Kansas City area was hard to come by.
• You used to have to go to a high quality restaurant downtown or at the Country Club Plaza for fish — and it would be expensive, Fishman said.
• “This was a novelty when they started bringing in live lobsters, you know, it was just something crazy,” Fishman said.

A longtime organizer died last year

• John Trewolla organized the Lobster Landing for 15 years up until he died in September 2022.
• Trewolla organized the event, kept a list of contacts and manned the check-in table the morning of the sale.
• Fishman said she and Gus Meyers, a parent who has helped with the sale for the past 20 years, canceled the 2022 sale because Trewolla was unable to send out order forms.
• Fishman and Meyers wanted to bring back the lobster sale in 2023 for one last time, though.
• “We were glad to be able to do it this year,” Fishman said.

Fishman is on the hunt for newcomers to takeover

• The International Club at SM East is in good financial standing to be able to support international students for the next four to five years, Fishman said.
• Still, she said she is looking for parents who have hosted international students as well as a staff member to take over the sale.
• Those who are interested in being part of the tradition can reach out to Fishman directly at [email protected].
• Fishman said the organization is fairly easy to replicate with a list of everyone who has purchased a lobster in the past five years and a steady contact in Maine.

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