Paraphrasing means to write something in our own words, that expresses the original idea of the text. The best paraphrase of the passage would be: "It is always dark where the Men of Winter live."
The correct verb would be "are".
Stefano is one of those few people who ARE very civic minded and actively involved in community affairs.
Why? Well, while we are in fact talking about Stefano, we are RELATING him towards the "few people". "Is" is a verb used for singular nouns while "are" is used more commonly among plural nouns.
You need to include the article
The second one since in a reflection you reflect your thoughts toward something