President’s Monthly Letter-

Action Makes Us Stronger…

It’s hard to know where to start (but I feel that way each and every month). Our Club is knocking it out of the park on so many levels and I am so proud of what we are doing together! Following Gandhi's words, we ARE going somewhere because we have members IN ACTION.

First, congratulations to our Membership Committee. With their help we are getting the word out to perspective members in our community and recruiting new and excited leaders who are stepping up. We are even receiving kudos from Zonta International for this work, being recognized as a “Club of Excellence”. What an honor. But the efforts don’t end with membership.

Our Club’s Advocacy, Service and EducateZ Committees are actively involved in commemorating Domestic Violence Awareness Month and Zonta Says No. From our Silent Witness displays around the county to our Beth Haynes Award and work with the Boulder County Domestic Response Team, to hosting a fascinating talk with Dr. Amy Bonomi at Front Range Community College, we are spreading the word.

Our Scholarship team is changing the lives of women all the time with their work identifying, selecting and recognizing women of excellence with scholarships for studies in business, leadership and now, efforts in climate-related fields with our Bev Sears Climate Action Scholarship! It is so exciting to meet these formidible women who are making the world a better place with our support.

The EducateZ Committee is growing our Z Club and Golden Z Club with steadfast commitment to mentorship, leadership and creative support. Our young members are learning critical skills to support women and girls and they are using their voices for positive change.

The Service Committee is taking big strides after two years of frustration with COVID limitations. Our libraries are back in full swing! EFAA alone is reporting that that they served record numbers of families year to date and they rely on our support to provide their clients with books, diapers, sanitary products and other support.

Our Advocacy Team is lending our voice to women’s issues here in Boulder, but also across the country through their local events and programs, participation in WoCoBoCo and work with the Zonta USA Caucus.

Finally, Fund Raising…they make it all possible. Planning for Colorado Gives and Zing is a year round effort! But remember, none of our committees do it alone! We are a strong force but only through each individual’s ACTION! Please give your time, your talent and your ideas whenever you can. In a world that often seems to be spiraling out of control, it is our work through Zonta that gives me that sense of satisfaction. It is that one thing that I can control as I volunteer one project at a time, helping one person at a time! I hope you feel that same sense of satisfaction.

Congratulations to the Club of Excellence!

— Pam

Congratulations to our Membership Committee for helping our club be one of the top 30 recruiters in our size tier for the 2023 Add Your Voice Membership Campaign. As a top 30 winner in our tier, we will be recognized in The Zontian Magazine as a “Club of Excellence”. Here is our personal Congratulations letter from ZI President Ute.

IMPORTANT DATES

Pantherz ZClub meeting- Every Tuesday from 4-5 pm at Boulder High School. Let Marta, Tommie, Claudia or Gaby know if you would like to attend.

Z Club Induction Ceremony - Tuesday, October 24, 4:30-6:30 pm Boulder High School Library 1604 Arapahoe Ave. Boulder CO.

Beth Haynes Award Ceremony - Wednesday, October 25. 2-4 pm. Boulder County Justice Center, 1777 6th St, Boulder, CO 80302.

Next Business Meeting - Thursday, November 9th Dinner 5:30 - 6:00 Meeting 6:00 to 7:30.

FLASH NEWS

District 12 Conference

scientists. Saturday was a day of meetings and workshops followed by a celebratory eventing with our very own Boulder magician Erica Sodos (you may remember her as our very own Zing host) as emcee. The evening’s highlight was a speech by past ZI President Sharon Langenbeck who, as a past Amelia Earhart Fellow, spoke of her carreer as the only female aerospace engineer in a very male dominated field. Then with the assistance of our own Ann Hodgson, D12 Amelia Earhart Chair, she introduced oue 4 University of Colorado 2023 AE Fellows. They were a fascinating group and we hope to invite them to one of our meetings soon. Thank you Ann for your hard work organizing this amazing scholarship!

On other news, our members are playing key roles in Zonta for the 2024-26 bienium. Colleen Farrell was elected Area 3 Director and Michelle Médal was elected to the District 12 nominating board. Ranelle Randels will also be the D12 Assistant Advocacy Chair and is a member of the Zonta USA Caucus.

Finally, the weekend ended with a BIG invitation! At Sunday’s breakfast our club members invited all guests to attend the 2024 Governor’s Seminar which will be hosted by our club here in Boulder. So get ready for next fall! We have lots of surprises in store.

Zonta says no for Domestic Violence awareness month

“That great time of year again where we get to recognize and honor all the amazing work that our law enforcement partners do for the safety and dignity of domestic violence victims in our community.  The Beth Haynes Award is given to a select individual among our law enforcement partners who has demonstrated excellent skills, commitment and passion in addressing intimate partner violence as a significant public health issue.” 

Officer Beth Haynes was shot and killed on April 16, 1994, upon arriving at the scene of a domestic dispute. When Officer Haynes died, she had served with the Boulder Police Department for four years; she was 26 years old. This Award, created by the Zonta Club of Boulder and now funded by our club, honors her memory and encourages continued awareness and response to this prolific public health challenge. We continue the tradition by partnering with The Boulder County Domestic Violence Task Force who recognize those who have demonstrated excellence with DV through a:

• history of service to victims

• knowledge of domestic violence dynamics and proper investigative techniques

• guidance provided to fellow officers on domestic violence issues and cases

• networking and problem solving around domestic violence with other agencies

• going beyond the “normal” level of service on a single domestic violence call/case

  This year’s honoree is Sheriff's Office Detective Mike McKinley who has been a steadfast supporter of victims in many cases over the year. This award is a high honor in our community because it is given by peers in the justice community. The winner and all nominees are recognized at the awards ceremony on October 25.  

Sponsored by the school’s Feminists Rising Club, the event was part of FRCC’s month-long programming around Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Advised by Professor Mary Ann Grimm, the club has partnered with us for a number of years. This year they have also created Silent Witness silouettes to hang around the student center and they are posting Domestic Violence resource fliers in all of the school’s bathrooms. Thanks to Service Co-Chair Cheri Magin for helping out. We are proud to be partnering with them to spread the message that Zonta Says Not to Violence Against Women!

Educatez Scholarship Committee

• Working to protect the planet

• Working on climate actions to improve the lives of women and girls

It’s a great opportunity for a deserving student. The application is currently available on our website.

We welcome any of you who would be interested in sitting on the selection committee for this award. Applications are due November 6th. We plan to announce our winner in mid-December. 

Zonta EducateZ Scholarship Committee - Nancy Rowe, Michelle Médal, Jan Cheney, Kim Prosser-Noonan, Catherine Bailey

Membership Committee

New At-Large Board Member and New Club Member!

Alot of great news on the membership front this past month. Nancy Rowe, our Zonta EducateZ Scholarship Co-Chair and member of our Fund Raising Committee, was installed as a Club board member at our September meeting.

We are also proud to install our newest member (but seasoned Zontian after 10 years in our Z Club programs), Claudia Ibarra. While completing her BA at CU Denver Claudia was the intern to our Z Clubs for the last two years. Now as a full fledged Foothills member she is still mentoring our clubs and is a crticial part of our EducateZ Committee. Welcome Claudia!!

Than sometime after the first of the year we will schedule a meeting for new members and their mentors to discuss our new member booklet which explains our club and its activities.

Big thanks to committee member Kay Meyer who is updating the our Foothills Member Booklet. This collection of member profiles hasn’t been updated in a few years so it will be great fun to learn all about one another. You will hear from us in the coming weeks to update your prfile information.

Finally, its name tag time! Colleen Farrell will be asking each member to submit the name they want to appear on our new club badges which we will be ordering soon. Some funds were donated to the club by a member to help pay for the new badges.

Service Committee

Family Assistance Association (EFAA) in Boulder, Community Foodshare (CFS) in Louisville and the Our Center in Longmont. Once we are restocked we will need the membership to volunteer for book deliveries once or twice a month to our libraries. More on that to follow. 

The Zervice Committee is coordinating projects for our whole club to work together with the Z Club and the Golden Z Club on service projects this year. Below are some completed and on going Zervice projects.

• Z Club School-wide book drive at BHS (See the pictures of the great work the club is doing below.)

• Z Club new member Induction Ceremony and officer Installation, October 24th at 4:30 PM, in the BHS Library, please bring an appetizer to share, cake and drinks will be provided.

• Diaper and Sanitary product drive for EFAA and CFS on Saturday, November 18th. Shift sign up sheet will be available next month.

• Book gift wrapping at CFS on a Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, a couple of weeks prior to Christmas. Date TBD andmore information to come.

• Share-a-Gift on Saturday December 16th. More information to follow. 

Zervice Committee - Co-chairs Marta Lindrose and Cheri Magin, Kim Prosser-Noonan, Joan Siebenaler, Catherine Bailey 

Zonta EducateZ Committee

At the social the officers and our club intern, Audrey Bahintchie, created an online trivia game complete with Zonta trivia questions! Everyone had a great time. We ran out of ice cream sandwiches of course…but it paid off since the club is now over 25 members strong. Our new officers are off to a great start and it is only the beginning.

Then they created their Silent Witness Sihouettes. For another year this project will hang in the school library for the whole school to learn about Zonta Says No.

Finally, the Z Club is getting involved with advocacy. On October 17, two Advocacy Committee members, Ranelle Randles and Sheila King, will speak to the Club about ways to use their voices through Zonta. Among other things, they will sign the students up for Fast Action Fridays and highlight the work of the Zonta USA Caucus.

Zonta EducateZ Committee - Tommie Attanasoff, Michelle Carpenter, Sheila Cohen, Gaby Lopez, Claudia Ibarra, Sheila King, Pam Malzbender, Marta Lindrose.

The FUNdraising Committee

over the world how important our work is for women and girls. Reach out to everyone you know. We have a great story to tell.

Just share our Colorado Gives link (click below) and ask your friends and family to donate. We will be sending out a number of emails and our PR campaign around COGives will begin in early November. So you will have alot of material to use when talking about this important part of our fund raising plan!! Thanks for planning ahead.

Please provide Marta with the name of the potential sponsors that you have or will be contacting so they can be added to our master list. We want to avoid the risk of duplication. Materials will be sent via email to the membership next week.

Here are a few updates:

• Zing will be held on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Dairy Arts Center.

• Our caterer will be Front Range Catering again - menu is TBD.

• Erica Sodos has agreed to be our emcee again.

• Some possible names for Judges are being discussed by the committee BUT we would like input from our membership and are asking them to make suggestions.

• Prizes for the talent show winners will be changed, there will be 2 prizes: a Judges Choice Prize and an Audience Choice Prize - each one will receive $500.

• We are looking into software packages to help with Check In, Silent Auction, Audience Voting and Check Out. We want an enjoyable and smooth experience for our guests.

• Fundraising is the WHOLE CLUB! The process relies on everyone to play a role and we are asking everyone to help to find sponsors, donors & TALENT.

• New promotional materials are available you will all have what you need to get out into our community and spread the word.

The FUNdraising Committee- Chair Marta Lindrose, Colleen Farrell, Catherine Médal, Nancy Rowe, Kathy Israelson

The Advocacy Committee

A Celebration of the 29th Anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act

Enhance Detection of Human Trafficking

In the United States, 10,360 unique cases (incidents) of potential human trafficking were reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline (NHTH) in 2021. The NHTH reports that in 2021, there were 6,699 victims of sex trafficking; 84% identify as females and 28% are children.

The bipartisan Enhancing Detection of Human Trafficking Act (H.R. 443) would ensure that Department of Labor (DOL) employees receive the proper training and continuing education to recognize instances of human trafficking and refer these cases to law enforcement agencies. 

If the bill is passed, the Secretary of Labor will be required to regularly report the training and continuing education provided under the program for the preceding year, the number of cases referred during the preceding year to the Department of Justice and other appropriate authorities in which human trafficking was suspected, and the metrics used by such employees to accurately measure and track the response of the DOL to such cases.

“This bill will strengthen the federal government’s ability to recognize and crack down on human trafficking in order to better protect the most vulnerable in our nation’s workforce,” says the bill’s co-sponsor, Del. Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan (D-MP).

TEXT ACTION FOR USA -TEXT “ZONTA” TO 50457 #FASTACTION

or Visit: https://www.votervoice.net/Zonta/Campaigns/107822/Respond