Thirty-eight members and guests of the Zonta Club of Leelanau County, including the first chapter president and four charter members, will celebrate 20 years of advocacy for women and an equal number of years of community service at the Yellow Rose Gala Friday evening at The Manor in Glen Arbor.

Since the club’s founding in 1988, its members have tackled a variety of community projects. Included in that list are providing hundreds of dollars in scholarship to encourage young women in the pursuit of non-traditional careers and the establishment of an annual career day for eighth grade girls attending Leelanau County schools. In addition, the club has provided funds for mammograms for uninsured or under-insured women, participated in highway cleanups, sewed mastectomy comfort pillows for breast cancer patients, and provided support for the Leelanau Laundry project.

“The idea of starting a Leelanau County chapter of Zonta began with the Traverse City chapter,” said Ann Brow of Northport, the first president of the local chapter. “They knew of a number of Leelanau County women who were interested in Zonta so they got us together and with their support we were able to get started.”

Zonta’s focus as an organization for business and professional women who worked together to improve the status of women and girls locally, nationally and internationally was an attraction to people like Brow, who was then the Leelanau Township Treasurer and the first woman to hold that office. “That first year was really a learning experience,” she said, adding that the Traverse City chapter walked the new club’s members through the development of bylaws and through the first year of operation.

Zonta remains an important influence in Leelanau County for a number of reasons.

“We provide role models for girls in Leelanau County. Many of our members started out in business as the only women in their field,” she said. “Zonta’s Career Day and our scholarships have enhanced Zonta’s reputation in the community and demonstrate our uniqueness because we focus on promoting the status of women and girls in Leelanau County and, with Zonta International, throughout the world.”

Four current members of the club were among the founding members: Barbara Klein and Pat Holmes of Suttons Bay, Joan Kalchik-TenBrock of Omena, and Lois Swierad of Glen Arbor.

Klein remembers the early years as busy, active times.

“We started with no money, working with a negative budget much of the time. So we decided what we wanted to do then go out and raise the funds to do it,” she said.

For charter member Pat Holmes, the reason she joined Zonta is a the same reason she’s stayed a member for 20 years.

“Zonta has given me the opportunity to come in contact with really dynamic women from all over the county and beyond, even internationally,” she said. Holmes, who worked in data processing, noted that Zonta brings members into contact with women from different professions and has allowed her to meet “wonderful people who have become personal friends.”

Today, the Zonta Club of Leelanau County has 24 members who work in a variety of professions, including financial services, pharmacy, administrative management, interior design, teaching, accounting, landscaping, excavating, communications and farm markets. Many Zonta members are business owners, operating firms that create jobs in Leelanau County.

The local chapter is part of Zonta District 15, which includes clubs throughout Michigan and parts of Ontario, Canada. Zonta was founded in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1919 by five women but quickly grew to 600, many of whom were among the first generation of college-educated women in North America.

The name Zonta was originally spelled “Zhonta,” which means honest and trustworthy in the Lakhota Sioux language. Although the spelling was changed to Zonta, the traditional meaning was incorporated into the club’s emblem.

A look at past Zonta service projects

The Zonta Club of Leelanau County has historically raised funds to support its various service projects and scholarships.
Currently, the club awards scholarships for Young Women in Science and Young Women in Public Affairs. This year’s fundraising projects include the annual flower sale in May and staffing a Parade of Homes house in June. The 2008 service projects include organization and sponsorship of the Alice Busby Miles for Mammograms fund-raising walk, sewing mastectomy comfort pillows for use by Munson hospital’s breast care center, and support for the Leelanau Laundry project.
A snapshot of some of the club’s past service projects includes:
• 1992 – Provided a refrigerator and kitchen supplies to the Leelanau Discovery Center preschool/day care center.
• 1994 – Flower planting at Leelanau Memorial Care Center and the Maple Valley Nursing Home.
• 1996 – First Career Day for Leelanau County’s eighth grade girls. Career Day continues today and is one of the club’s most important annual projects.
• 1999 – Sponsored Leelanau Women’s Health Day, providing funds for mammograms and exams for under-insured and uninsured women.;
• 2000 – Painted and furnished a room at Madeleine’s Transition House.
• 2003 – Highway clean up project begins.
• 2007 – Assumed sponsorship role for Alice Busby Miles for Mammograms.