Zonta Club of the Pikes Peak Area
February 2005 Newsletter
Volume V, Issue 2
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Zonta Club of the Pikes Peak Area |
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In This Issue: Peak View Member Information Member Profile Kudos Kolumn Information: Link Dates to Remember |
PEAK VIEW!from Kathy Fortner |
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What a delightful time we had on our trip to Peterson Air Force Base for our January meeting. Captain Amy Sufak did an outstanding job being our hostess. She gave an excellent guided bus tour and provided great insights on the 21st Air Wing Headquarters and the role they play in the Air Force. For dinner we were joined by three women Air Force personnel who shared their stories with us. Following dinner, Diane Riggs was initiated into Zonta. Welcome, Diane!
It was a wonderful outing. Thanks to Pam Sufak for planning it.
Earlier in January nine of us met with Lutheran Family Services to learn how we could help some Liberian families who have come to Colorado Springs to live. We found they would benefit most from mentoring - having someone run errands with them, helping them with reading and writing English, and helping with resumes and job searches. All of the women must have jobs in order to stay here. They also need food, clothing and household items. We will be having a potluck dinner with the families in February. This dinner will be a great opportunity to taste each other's foods and give us a chance to meet each other. It will also be a time to bring some of the items they need. Be sure to come and meet these ladies and their children and hear the fascinating stories of why they left their homeland.
-Kathy
"Remember always that you have not only the right to be an individual, you have the obligation to be one. You cannot make any useful contributions in life unless you do that." - humanitarian Eleanor Roosevelt |
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Tsunami Information, Issues and News
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February Birthdays
*Friend of Zonta
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Hi, I am Diane Riggs.
This is hopefully a quick snapshot of who I am, where I've been and what I do. I grew up in the first "planned" community west of the Mississippi - Kirkwood, MO - a suburb of St. Louis. I am the second oldest of seven children and, as number two, "we try harder." Also as part of a large family, I couldn't wait to get out! We frequently traveled to Denver where my mother's brother and family lived. As part of this rendezvous, we vacationed - as a rather large clan - to the Pikes Peak region. When my high school buds began talking of traveling to Colorado for further education, I said "no problem. Let's go!" My working career began at the Colorado State School for the Deaf and the Blind in a deaf-blind, rubella student program. I completed my degree at Colorado State University but left Ft. Collins to work at the now Colorado Mental Health Institute and later the Pikes Peak Mental Health Center. From there, I traveled to Seattle to complete my Masters at the University of Washington. I thought living in the city was not so bad so decided to return to St. Louis. But St. Louis is not like Seattle so I departed for Colorado Springs. As fate would have it on that very night of my return, I met Kim Riggs who two years later became my husband. As a result, I have two daughters, Maggie, 19, and Laura, 16. Maggie did not adhere to my wandering star and settled herself at a very early age. She now has a 21/2 year old daughter of her own, making me a grandmother in the process. It was a struggle for me but she handled it well graduating high school and becoming assistant manager at the I-25/Garden of the Gods Conoco. Laura is a full-time high school student, on the Doherty Girls Track team, working at Sears on the weekends as well as a day care after school, and life-guarding in her spare time. She wants to attend college "near the beach." |  |
I worked at Cheyenne Village followed by Penrose-St. Francis until consolidation of the home care offered me a severance package. I chose to stay in the Springs and picked up a research position at JA Worldwide. I research the K-12 education landscape and develop business, economic, and personal finance curriculum for this age group. I was offered the chance to visit Seoul and train volunteers from the community to deliver our programs. Volunteerism is completely foreign in this nation and it took a bit of convincing as to the benefits of the method.
This past summer I met women operating JA offices around the world. I
listened to the struggles they have entering schools with economic
curriculum in their nations and realized I am not as aware of women's
issues internationally. When Zonta presented itself via a nut drive email
I thought this would be a great opportunity to educate myself and do
something at the same time. I was installed at Peterson Air Force base,
January 23rd becoming the newest member of the Pikes Peak Region thus far
in 2005.
Photos from the January Special Eventcourtesy of Rosalie DorlandSee additional images in our club scrapbook! |
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January Special Event - Zontians Speak! |
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| What a program for recognition of Amelia Earhart! Speaking with our dinner companions, women currently working in the airforce, I learned about their high career goals. Very impressive. Thanks Pam for having this program. - Renee Troppe |
| Out of all our programs, about 4 really stand out and the one at Peterson Air Force Base is definitely one of them. I thought it was fabulous. - Phyllis Zell |
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I was so impressed with Pam's Daughter-in-Law, Captain Amy Sufak who is
Chief of Public Affairs of the 21st Space Wing at Peterson. Captain
Sufak met us outside the gates at Peterson and took us on a bus tour of
the various buildings. She then took us to her office and presented such
an informative slide program about the scope of their operations
worldwide.
All who couldn't join us on this tour really missed an awesome program. My husband Jerry was also on the tour, and even though he has done a lot of contract work in the past at Peterson and other military bases, he even learned a lot. I knew about NORAD'S importance to our national defense, but I had no idea about the scope of other Colorado Springs' military bases. It made me have a better appreciation for what these facilities do for our city's economy. Also it made a big impact on me when I thought about our city's being at the center of our nation's global defense position. I came away with a greater respect and appreciation for our armed forces and the 24-hour a day jobs they do for us. Amy was so informative and personable on the tour. She gave of her own time away from her family on a Sunday evening to take us on the tour. We ate at the cafeteria where the airmen eat. Amy had made arrangements for two female Air Force personnel to join us for dinner, and we had the opportunity to sit and chat with them about their lives, their jobs, and their aspirations. Again, we were very impressed with these young women and their enthusiasm for their careers. Amy told us about her interesting Air Force career and how she followed the lead of her older sister who is up for the rank of Lt. Colonel. They have accomplished a lot since only about 17% of the Air Force is made up of females. Amy sat at our table at dinner, and I asked her about the NORAD's tracking of Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. She said that she had the opportunity to man the phones for Spanish-speaking children calling in about Santa's location. Amy's father is from Peru, and her Mother was in the Peace Corps in South America, so Amy speaks Spanish fluently. She said it was kind of hard answering some of the children's questions because they wanted to know exactly when Santa would be visiting their house! I've always been intrigued with this wonderful "human interest" story of how NORAD and Santa got started. We owe Pam a lot of thanks for arranging this tour for us through Amy. All of us who were able to go really appreciated all of their efforts. - Earlene Herman |
Ideas include vcr's, picture dictionaries, fresh foods (especially fruits and vegetables), rice, other food items, household items, clothing for adults, children and infants, toys and books. Anything you think of that would be useful. They will be set out on a table to be selected by our guests. The women may bring their children as well. Also, bring food containers you can spare so they may take home leftovers.
Thanks to the generosity of those on the bus returning from our Amelia Earhart program, we collected $52 to give them so they may bring some African pot luck dishes to share with us.
Zonta Founders |
General Meeting Program
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Our February meeting will be very special. We will learn about the programs we support through our financial contributions. We give club money to Intercept, Full Circle and Mighty Muse. Kim Bolding of Intercept will give us an update on their program, Paula Stock will speak about Full Circle and our own member Ava Heinrichsdorff will talk about recent activities of Might Muse. As an extra treat, Vanda Franowicz and Odette will come to answer questions and direct our energies for the Liberian Women's Project. So come to the meeting to learn all about these wonderful programs. See you there! Kris, Service Chair
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 | Area 4 Newsletter Note: This document is in MS Word format.
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Kudos Kolumn | 
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Here you have the opportunity to thank and/or praise your
fellow Zontians for something above and beyond. Send all contributions to
the newsletter editor -
nulty@csdco.com.
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UNICEF - United Nations Children's Fund The History of Valentine's Day - from The History Channel Valentine's Day Recipes - and food poem |
| February 7 | 5:30 pm Board Meeting - Montague's on South Tejon |
| February 18 | 7-9pm Liberian Women Project Pot Luck Dinner |
| February 21 | General Meeting |
| April 2 | 8:30am - 2pm Area 4 Meeting in Colorado Springs |
| June 24-26 | ZI: Interdistrict Membership Seminar of the Americas' |
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Thank you ladies! |
Please send comments and suggested information for the newsletter to nulty@csdco.com.
www.zontadistrict12.org/pikespeak.html www.zontadistrict12.org www.zonta.org |
