President's Message

2009-2010 Zonta Club of Hampton Roads
President’s Report
Submitted by Chris Colden, President

The Zonta Club of Hampton Roads focused on two events during the 2009-2010 club year:

Our continuing service to our local battered women’s and homeless shelter – Samaritan House - and our annual Women’s Celebration dinner.

 For Samaritan House, we spruced up one of the townhomes they use to house families that have fled domestic violence. We had a large group of members and prospective members participate.  One of our members hosted a birthday party for herself and asked guests to bring items to donate to this project in lieu of bringing her personal gifts.  She was a prospective member at the time of this project and has now joined our club and is serving on the board as a Director. This project gives us all such rewards in cleaning, refurbishing, and renewing a home for many that have been displaced from their homes due to domestic violence. 

 Our 9th annual Women’s Celebration was held at Old Dominion University in March to commemorate International Women’s month. We honored two women in our community who had been nominated by friends or co-workers for their contributions to advancing the status of women in our community and/or internationally.  This event also serves to educate attendees about Zonta and our mission worldwide. We raised funds with many donated raffle items and program ads. We also celebrated our 25th Anniversary and had 2 members join our club as a result of their experience at this event!  We were also honored to have a former Samaritan House client come and speak to us on what a difference Zonta and Samaritan House has made in her life.  She is now completing her educational degree in nursing.

 We continue our work on forming a new club in the Newport News/Williamsburg area now and have 10 prospective members – several are former Zontians.   This effort is led by Margene Hartsough, long-time member of Zonta who lives in the Newport News/ Williamsburg area.