Author: zontaintl

The Zonta Club of Seligenstadt, in collaboration with the clubs of Aschaffenburg and Alzenau—all in Germany—organized their first rally on Sunday, 22 Sept, in honor of Zonta’s centennial.

The participants were greeted by the presidents and organizers—Christine Widmer and Martina Christl from the Zonta Club of Aschaffenburg (District 28), Dr. Eva Heberer from the Zonta Club of Seligenstadt (District 28) and Gisela Eichfelder, from the Zonta Club of Alzenau (District 14), on the grounds of the local School of Masonry in the vicinity of Aschaffenburg’s Castle.

To underscore their support not only of the local Zonta clubs but especially of Zonta’s goal to support women and end child marriage, the mayors of Aschaffenburg and Seligenstadt honored the rally with their presence. Mr. Herzog, mayor of Aschaffenburg, cut the ribbon with the youngest participant at the starting point. Dr. Bastian, Mayor of Seligenstadt, met and accompanied the guests on the ferry ride across the Main from the Bavarian side of the river to Seligenstadt on the Hessian side.

The course took 70 participants in 25 cars over to the airport of Ringheim, then crossed the Main River by ferry. Hessian Seligenstadt was explored on foot and the intricate country roads of the Bavarian Spessart took the participants to their final destination, the restaurant on the golf course Hofgut Trages near Alzenau.

The rally was accompanied and filmed by Ligaco Drone Experts, Seligenstadt, who donated their time. Excerpts of the filmed event will be publicized shortly on the clubs’ websites.

The rally netted €5,000 (approximately US$5,511), which will be donated as a joint contribution to the ZISVAW Fund in support of Zonta’s Ending Child Marriage project.

The Zonta Club of Lagos I in Nigeria organized a free health screening for the less privileged people of the Makoko community in Lagos as part of its activities to celebrate Zonta’s centennial anniversary.

More than 200 community members, mostly women and girls, benefited from the event.

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Zonta Clubs of Sanremo and Ventimiglia-Bordighera joined to celebrate Zonta’s first 100 years.

The grand ball took place at the Grand Hotel del Mare in Bordighera, Italy. The clubs also organized a lottery, whose proceeds will go to women who lost family, houses or work after Ponte Morandi of Genoa collapsed in 2018, killing 43 people.

Read more about the event here.

The Zonta Club of Port Macquarie Inc in Australia, District 24, hosted the 2019 Women in Service luncheon in Port Macquarie on 21 August. 

At the event, the club promoted Zonta’s centennial anniversary and presented their club Centennial Community Award to a local service organization.

View photos from the event below,.

The Zonta Club of Speyer-Germersheim in Germany, District 28, organized a walking tour through Speyer, one of the oldest cities on the Rhine River, to celebrate Zonta’s 100th anniversary.

The tour led by a local female guide specializing in women’s history raised awareness of the often-forgotten contributions of women to historical events as well as social and political developments. Speyer served as a good example of the fact that history written by those in power tends to neglect the ideas and activities of women.

The Zontians enjoyed an informative evening to honor Zonta, celebrating how long women have come in the past 100 years, and thinking about what still needs to be done.

The Zonta Club of Perth Inc in Western Australia, District 23, chose to celebrate Zonta’s centennial anniversary with an event titled, “Cosmos Calling: Space the Next Frontier.”

This event took place under the dome of Perth’s SciTech Planetarium during Science Week. It featured a planetarium show, presentations by three exciting female astrophysicists and a lively panel discussion. The aim of the night was to promote the Amelia Earhart Fellowship and Women in Technology Scholarship, as well as inspire women and girls to take more interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). It worked!

The emcee was the State’s former Chief Scientist, Professor Lyn Beazley. She described how Aboriginal people’s movements were guided by the position of the ’emu’ in the Milky Way. She introduced the three speakers:

• Dr Natasha Hurley-Walker works with the Murchison Widefield Array (the precursor to the Square Kilometre Array – SKA). She showed the beauty of the Cosmos in ‘radio colour’ by colouring non-visible wavelengths that usually appear as blackness to our human eyes.
• Dr Katarina Miljkovic works on NASA’s InSight mission monitoring the seismic activity on Mars to see if the planet’s centre is ‘soft or hard-boiled’ and showed a ‘selfie’ that the InSight lander had taken on Mars.
• Dr Ellie Sansom works on the global Fireball Network tracking fireballs through the sky using a global camera network. The cameras can also monitor the changing orbits of satellites. She encouraged everyone to report fireballs using a special app.

Club President Carole Theobald welcomed everyone to this special Zonta centennial event and provided an introduction to Zonta and its work. She dressed as a suffragette to celebrate Zonta’s Centennial and it being 100 years since women in the USA obtained the right to vote. 

Judy Gorton, Zonta International Director, provided a heartfelt vote of thanks to the speakers and audience, explaining how funds raised will go towards Zonta’s service and education programs.

 A full report is available on the club’s website www.zontaperth.org.au

The Zonta Club of Taichung and Z Club of Taichung Hong Wen in Taiwan, District 31, celebrated Zonta’s 100th anniversary with a concert and a parade that supported the Zonta Says NO to Violence Against Women campaign and Zonta’s actions to end child marriage.

The concert was successful and attracted many participants. After the intermission of the concert and with the guidance from the host, the 500 attendees—including citizens of Taichung City, students from Hong Wen High School and Zontians—shouted out “Zonta Says NO.” The audience’s awareness of the Zonta spirit and goal to end child marriage was elevated.

Along with their fellow students from Hong Wen High School, Z club members wore blue “Zonta 100” T-shirts for the parade and shouted out the slogan “Zonta Says NO” along the way.

The parade successfully caught the attention of the public. The Zonta spirit and goal to end child marriage represented in the parade were widely spread.

The Zonta Club of Oil City-Franklin in USA, District 4, celebrated 100 years of Zonta during the Oil Heritage Parade on 27 July 27 in Oil City, Pennsylvania.

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The club had a float and tried to get as many Zontians from all over District 4 to celebrate with them to walk or ride in the parade.

“It was a wonderful celebration for our 100 year anniversary,” says Rebekah Deal, the club’s secretary.