"Together, we have the power to change the lives of women and girls around the world by combatting laws and societal norms that perpetuate any inequality women face."

— Zonta International Past President Sharon Langenbeck

President’s Letter

Our Past President Sharon Langenbeck explains “…we have the power to change lives…” and as we come to the close of another year, our annual lake party is a reminder that we are doing just that, one woman at a time. Yes, through our financial support and mentoring we are supporting young women in Boulder County to grow as students, leaders and most of all, as women. But our lake party always reminds me of how we change our own lives as well. The friendships we forge with fellow Foothills Club members are life-long and the women who we meet through our Z Clubs and Scholarship programs are growing up with Zonta and our Club as a mainstay in their lives. Thank you to our EducateZ Committee Chairs Claudia Ibarra and Gaby Lopez for their amazing coordination of this year’s event. We especially loved playing LOTERÍA “Get to Know You” Bingo and generating conversations between Club members of all ages. We are a great bunch to get to know!

You can look back at 2023-24 with a warm heart, knowing that in whatever way you supported our Club’s mission, you made a BIG difference. Now we look ahead. The summer is a time for fun, vacations and relaxation, but behind the scenes we will be planning next year. Our Retreat on Saturday, June 22 will be the kick off. PLEASE PLAN TO ATTEND. You will receive the agenda in the next few days.

After our retreat discussions, we will construct our budgets from the bottom up. Each Committee will brain storm over the next few weeks to set their projected ‘24-25 expenses. We will compile and approve our new budget by the first week of August.

See you at the retreat. Bring your ideas!

-Pam

OTHER IMPORTANT FOOTHILLS CLUB DATES

Longmont Zappy Hour, Thursday, June 27 - hosted by Catherine Bailey. Please bring a friend! We love talking about our Club and getting others excited to join us. See invitation below.

  • Boulder Zappy Hour, Thursday, August 22 - hosted by Ranelle Randles

  • Summer Board Meeting, Thursday, August 29 - location TBD

  • District 12 Governor’s Conference, October 4, 5, 6, 2024 at beautiful Chautauqua - Zonta Foothills Club will be hosting so SAVE THE DATE!

2024-25 Committees

Thank you everyone for joining our committes for 2024-25. We have a strong lineup of dedicated teams who are excited to join forces. Remember, if your preference changes or if you would like to try out other committees, don’t hesitate to ask Nancy Rowe, our Governance and Engagement Committee Chair or Pam Malzbender, Club President. Our goal is to ensure that everyone enjoys their time spent supporting our club.

Zonta Government and Engagement Committee - Chair Nancy Rowe Colleen Farrell, Claudia Ibarra, Pam Malzbender, Amanda Elsnes, Ann Hodgson, Kathy Israelson, Catherine Médal

Governance and Advocacy Committee

Save the Date for Zappy Hour!

Please join the Membership Committee at one of our summer Zappy Hours.

On June 27 Catherine Bailey will be our host in Longmont and on August 22 Ranelle Randles host at her home. Please reach out to and friends who could not make it to the last one. We are hoping to get new members involved by the time fall comes around.

Hope you will bring your friends!

Welcome to Our Newest Members

Our May meeting was a reason to celebrate so many things, but perhaps best of all we celebrated the induction of our two newest members, Carol Smoot and Lisa Lesniak. Ann Hodgson, Past District 12 Governor did the honors of officially welcoming them into our Club and they have hit the ground running!

In addition to the induction, Deb Beaty our District 12 Lieutenant Governor for the 2024-26 Biennium, attended our meeting to help us install our new officer team. Thank you Deb and good luck to our ‘24-25 officers.

FUNdraising Committee

Fundraising 2024-25 Survey Meeting

Nancy Rowe, Fundraising Committee member, led a well attended zoom meeting in late May to review the responses from our fund raising survey. With an almost 100% response rate, we got a clear sense of the Club’s enthusiasm for Zing and Colorado Gives.

There is some concern about how to work more efficiently and share the tasks, but the survey seems to illustrate our membership’s willingness to pitch in in 2025. We have reserved The Dairy Arts Center for April 18, 2025 and we will take an official vote to move ahead with Zing at our retreat.

Zonta FUNdraising Committee - Co-chairs: Marta Lindrose and Colleen Farrell

Zervice Committee

Book Team Made it Look Easy!

Our members (along with a few Pantherz Z Club members) came out in force our Boulder Storage locker to help sort and organize the books for our free libraries. A big thank you to Catherine Bailey who kept us all organized.

Joining the team were Dixie Hollingsworth, Kay Meyer, Joan Smoot, Colleen Farrell, Cheri Magin, Joan Siebenaler, Carol Smoot, Nancy Rowe, Marta Lindrose, Claudia Ibarra and Pam Malzbender. Big thank you to Lily Beacom, and Chloe, next year’s Z Club officers.

We moved everything out of the lockers because there were so many recent donations! There were many beautiful books from Share-a-Gift, Anthem Ranch, and Barbed Wire Books in Longmont.

Zonta Zervice Committee - Co-chairs: Marta Lindrose and Catherine Bailey, Tommie Atanasoff, Dixie Hollingsworth, Cheri Magin, Kim Prosser-Noonan, Joan Siebenaler, Carol Smoot

Advocacy Committee

What the Constitution Means to Me

It was a great evening together as the Advocacy Committee host a member event to watch the play What the Constitution Means to Me at The Dairy Arts Center. The Tony-nominated, Pulitzer finalist play, written by Heidi Shreck, delves into four generations of women to analyse how our founding document shaped their lives. Here is the event coordinator, Elizabeth Freedman along with Sara Gillspie’s daughter, Maura.

Mother’s Day March for Childcare

Gaps exist in early childhood education and childcare, especially for low-income families. Longmont’s Mothers’ Day March for Childcare and Neighborhood Rally raised awareness and advocated for change.

Our Club was a sponsor of this important event and we will continue to support our community to help address this growing problem. Thanks to Nancy Rowe, Ann Hodgson, Ranelle Randles and Kathy Bousquet for representing our Club at our rally table.

The Advocacy Committee - Co-Chairs: Sara Gillespie & Sheila King Elizabeth Freedman, Lisa Lesniak, Kay Meyer, Ranelle Randles, Dana RaeVaughn

Educatez Scholarship Committee

Reviewing JMK Applications!

Applications for the Jane M Klausman (JMK) Women in Business Scholarship were due June 3rd. Thanks to those members who volunteered to help the Scholarship Committee read, rank and pick our lucky recipient. We will meet at the end of June to start our discussions.

A winner will be announced by July 12th. This Zonta International scholarship focuses on gender equality in business. Our club will give a lucky young woman a $2,000 scholarship, and then our applicant will be submitted to the District level, where she will compete for an additional $6,000 as an international winner. You may remember that our club’s 2023 JMK winner, Lauren Hanley, was awarded the Zonta District and International prizes. She received a total of $8,000! We hope to have a repeat again this year!

EducateZ Scholarship Applications Extended

The deadline for the Zonta EducateZ Scholarship, awarded to further the post-secondary education of a woman returning to school, has been extended. We realize that many women making the decision to return to school decide to register at the last minute. It is often late summer when they take action. So we have extended the deadline into late summer to give them more opportunity to apply.

The EducateZ Scholarship is our own endowed $2,000 award which we invest through the Boulder Community Foundation. With this fund we support women attending college, university, or trade school with financial need. Last year’s recipient was Estephany Longoria from CU Denver.

We always welcome any Club member who is interested in participating with our scholarship selection. Feel free to contact Nancy Rowe!

We Meet Our 2024 YWPA Winner

At our May meeting we were honored to meet Katherine Cui, our 2024 Young Women in Public Affairs Winner. A junior at Niwot High School, Katherine is the founder of the School's first Asian Student Association and President of Longmont's Youth Council. She has led numerous projects to combat the problems facing the youth in our community. Congratulations Catherine.

The EducateZ Scholarship Committee - Co-Chairs Nancy Rowe and Michelle Médal Margareta Bancroft, Kathy Bousquet, Jan Cheney, Dana Rae Vaughn, Kay Meyer

Zonta EducateZ Committee

Pantherz Z Club Recognized by BVSD Board of Education for Culture of Respsect Project

The members of our Boulder High School Pantherz Z Club were invited to present their Culture of Respect Project as part of the “Student Moment” at the May meeting of the Boulder Valley Schools Board of Education. Here you can take a peak of them presenting their project. Nataly Villa, Zoe Cardenas and Lily Beacom did a bang up job, even with the slides being shown out of order.

You can view the meeting here! (Don’t worry we are right at the beginning.)

As you may remember, The Boulder High School Pantherz Z Club launched a school-wide campaign asking their community to join in creating a Culture of Respect. They created a Panther TV spot to promote the effort and then they collected signatures from classmates, teachers, and others in the community. They also participated in the BVSD Art Exhibit as part of the district’s Title IX Task Force. Fairview High School followed their lead and launched a similar program to support this work. Next year, they hope to move this project even further in partnership with Fairview.

Z Club Thanks Seniors at Year-End Bowling Party

Wow…lots of strikes and lots of FUN. The Z Club celebrated their seniors and the end of the school year with an afternoon at the University of Colorado Events Center Bowling Alley. We spread out over 4 lanes and watched as the board tallied up lots of strikes and spares for some pretty good scores.

Congratulations to our Seniors Nataly and Andrea as they move on to college and here’s to the Boulder High School Panthers of the future!

Golden and Platinum Z Clubs Get Professional Head Shots

Alexandra Sosa is local photographer who can be found at concerts, athletic events, and weddings.She is also a Boulder High School alum and a friend of our Z Clubs. Recently she spent a Saturday protographing 13 Golden Z and Platinum Z Club members. Our Clubs had the opportunity to take professional head shots for social media and for other professional promotion.

A big thank you to Tommie Atanasoff for letting us use her kitchen as a social gathering spot (and makeup room) and her basement as the official photography studio.

Zonta EducateZ Committee -Co-Chairs Gaby Lopez & Claudia Ibarra, Pam Malzbender,Michelle Carpenter, Tommie Atanasoff, Margareta Bancroft, Dixie Hollingsworth

Zonta Says Now Climate Justice News

What Does Climate Justice Really Mean to Zonitans?

Zonta International envisions a world where every woman can achieve her full potential, has access to all resources, is represented in decision-making positions on an equal basis with men, and lives without fear of violence. Let’s take gender-equal climate action now, to keep this vision alive:

Finance Committee

Keeping Our Foundation Strong

The Finance Committee is meeting regularly to plan our investments and our budgetting process. We are also looking our best practices for managing and investing the funds that we raise each year.

A big thank you to our Treasurer, Michelle Médal for working with us and most of all keeping our accounts humming. She’s behind the scenes processing dues, paying bills, tracking income and expenses for both the Club and the Foundation and now, she is working with the Finance Committee to transfer our computer-based accounting system to a cloud-based system. This will make it easier to track Foundation- and Committee-specific expenditures on a monthly basis.

Zonta Finance Committee - Chair Pam Malzbender, Michelle Médal, Nancy Rowe, Ranelle Randles, Marta Lindrose and Colleen Farrell

Zonta News

Make it stand out

Members of the 2024-2026 Zonta District 12 Board and Leadership Team (including our own Foothills members serving on the 2024-2026 team are Colleen Farrell – Area 3 Director, Michelle Medal – Nominating Committee and Ann Hodgson – Directory) met in Casper, Wyoming on June 7-9. Our leadership planned for the new biennium under D 12 Governor Debbie Sunberg.  Debbie presented the team with orange t-shirts to mark our continued work to end violence against women through Zonta Says No.  

Child Marriage IS and Epidemic

Great letter from Lawyer and advocate Qasim Rashid on Ending Child Marriage.  This tells me our messages to End Child Marriage are gaining momentum, it is coming into the greater public consciousness.   Please feel free to amplify.  and keep up the good work, state by state.

Katherine Cleland, Zonta USA Caucus

public Relations

Check us Out Online

Zonta Foothills Club Online Web site - https://www.zontafoothills.org/ Instagram - zontafoothillslubboulder Facebook - Zonta Foothills Club of Boulder County

Pantherz ZClub Social Media Instagram - bhs.zclub

PR Committee - C0-Chairs Pam Malzbender & Sheila Cohen, Joan Siebenaler, Carol Smoot