San-Cap Zonta charters Z Club for PACE Center
A new service club for youth dedicated to providing career guidance and promoting leadership skills, international fellowship and the ideal of service was chartered last Wednesday on Sanibel.
The ceremony took place at Beachview Golf & Tennis Club with dignitaries from the City of Sanibel, District 11 Zonta and several other chapters as well as members of the PACE board and Z Club in attendance.
Sponsored by the Zonta Club of Sanibel-Captiva, the club – called a Z Club – will be based at the Lee County PACE Center for Girls in Fort Myers and is believed to be the first such club chartered at a school for girls at risk.
PACE is a statewide network of educational institutions that seeks to provide young women and girls with an opportunity for a better future through education, counseling, training and advocacy. PACE’s programs for Florida girls has become a national model for results-based intervention.
Z Clubs, along with Golden Z Clubs (for college students), are a project of Zonta International, the worldwide service organization of executives in business and the professions working together to advance the status of women. The idea behind Z Clubs is to inspire young women to the ideals of local and international service while still in high school.
“Z Club members undertake service projects benefiting their schools, their community and the world,” the Zonta International manual states. “They promote the development of leadership ability and good character, and they strive for scholastic achievement and the improvement of international understanding through service.”
The “Z Club for PACE GirlZ” will select its own service projects and the Zonta Club of Sanibel-Captiva will serve in an advisory capacity with Zontian Cyndy Lorry, the principal liaison. The new Z Club will run its own meetings, supported by two advisors from the PACE staff. Membership will be a privilege extended to girls who achieve and maintain high standards of academic progress.
Invitations were extended to local business leaders, elected officials, PACE Board members and the girls’ families or guardians. After introduction of each girl by PACE Board Chair Gail Markham, Zonta Vice President Karen Pati inducted the members of the club while President-elect Linda Robison inducted the officers. Lorry chaired the induction ceremony, assisted by Zonta’s District 11 Governor Jane Adams, Past Area Director Nola Theiss and PACE Executiive Director Debbie Webb.
Tiffany B. has been elected president of the club, Shanice G. as vice president, Tamara P will serve as recording secretary, Fatima H. as corresponding secretary and Brittany P. as treasurer.
Teacher Carly Moorman and counselor Julie Kirkpatrick accepted the charter and gavel from Adams in the absence of Tiffany, who had had emergency kidney surgery on Monday and was unable to attend.
The Zonta Club of Sanibel/Captiva is a service organization of professional women working together to provide hands-on assistance, advocacy and funds to strengthen women’s lives on the islands, in Lee County and – through Zonta International – around the world.
For additional information, visit www.zontasancap.com.