"Oh, the Places You'll Go! You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. So... get on your way!”
— Dr. Seuss
Table of Contents
President’s Letter
Zonta Events Coming Up
Committee News
A Year of so Many Accomplishments!
As the 2025-26 Club year comes to a close, I think about all that our Club accomplished this year. I hope that you feel successful and confident in what we achieved together. From honoring our 2025 Beth Haynes winner to hosting the 2026 Climate Justice Forum. From holding the annual Z Club Hygiene Drive to bringing the Culture of Respect project to the field of the girls’ soccer game. From awarding the Women in Business Scholarship to selecting Zonta’s first STEM Scholarship. And everything in between – thank you!
We had originally talked about a celebration of all our scholars, past & present, in May, but we postponed that to early September. May is typically a busy month anyway, but with Zong for Zonta in March and the Climate Justice Forum in April, it seemed like a huge task to host another big event the following month.
As the 2025-26 Club year comes to a close, I think about all that our Club accomplished this year. I hope that you feel successful and confident in what we achieved together. From honoring our 2025 Beth Haynes winner to hosting the 2026 Climate Justice Forum. From holding the annual Z Club Hygiene Drive to bringing the Culture of Respect project to the field of the girls’ soccer game. From awarding the Women in Business Scholarship to selecting Zonta’s first STEM Scholarship. And everything in between – thank you!
We had originally talked about a celebration of all our scholars, past & present, in May, but we postponed that to early September. May is typically a busy month anyway, but with Zong for Zonta in March and the Climate Justice Forum in April, it seemed like a huge task to host another big event the following month.
When we think about all that we do in a given Club year, maybe it’s time to redirect the structure of the Club to match our ambitions. In our 2025 Strategic Visioning discussions, we outlined 4 “Big Ideas.”
Make Zonta a household name
Grow our membership
Make a bigger impact on our community
Grow donors and sponsors
We had some success in each of these areas in 2025-26. Now the question is how to sustain it. Another thing I think about is to ask, are we doing all that we can for our Members to feel connected to the Club? Many new women join Zonta Foothills with the hope to make a difference – in scholarships, in climate justice, in leadership of younger women. With that in mind, I’d like to plan how the next year will look. If you, as a Member of Zonta Foothills, would like to participate in that discussion, please join the Big Picture Visioning meeting scheduled for June 25th at 5:30 pm, location TBD.
And isn’t it fitting that we end the year with a celebration of our Z Club and Golden Z Members? As you meet each of these individuals, I believe you will feel proud knowing that we are awarding them a combined total of $26,700 this year.
A huge thank you to each and every one of you. It’s time for us to take a step back and bask in the glow of our success. Instead of holding a year-end retreat, I am planning to have a Club Meeting on our regularly scheduled 2nd Thursday of the month, which will be entirely social. Thursday, June 11th, will be a party to celebrate a successful 2025-26! More details to follow!
Best, Nancy
May Club Meeting
Thursday, May 15th 5:30-6:00. Hosted by the Educatez Committee
Dinner & Social time at 5:30, Meeting begins at 6 pm.
Meeting Location: Valmont Community Presbyterian Church, 3262 61st St, Boulder, CO 80301. (NOTE THAT THE ROAD IS OPEN FROM THE NORTH! YEAH.)
This month’s meeting is a celebration. We will be recognizing our Zonta EducateZ Scholarship recipients. You will meet this year’s Pantherz Z Club and Golden Z Club Scholarship winners and hear about their college plans. Oh, the Places they’ll GO…We are sending them on their way."
Zonta Events Coming Up
Finance Committee Meeting - Tuesday, May 12, 12:00 - 1:00 pm. Via Zoom. Let Nancy know if you would like to attend. Everyone welcome.
Club Meeting - Thursday, May 14, 5:30-7:30 pm, Scholarship Celebration! Meet our Zonta Foothills Foundation past and present. We will celebrate their accomplishments. Valmont Community Presbyterian Church, 3262 61st St, Boulder, CO 80301.
GoldenZ Club Investing workshop, Wednesday, May 27th, 5:00 pm mingle and 5:30 pm workshop - Valmont Community Presbyterian Church, 3262 61st St, Boulder, CO 80301.
Z Club “Lake Party” - Wednesday, June 3, Details to come.
Club 2026-27 Visioning Session - Thursday, June 25, 5:30 PM - 8:30 pm, Location TBD
Club Social - Thursday, June 11 - Time and Location TBD
Zonta Foothills Club of Boulder County Committee News
Advocacy Committee
Climate Justice Forum Helps Frame the Conversation
On Saturday, April 25th, Zonta Foothills celebrated Earth Day with a powerful event working to“Educate! Inspire! and Activate!” This theme was amplified by a panel discussion between five women – educators, scientists, environmental activists, policy experts - and followed by a Q&A session with the audience. (Educate and Inspire!)
We are grateful to KC Becker and Zontian Julie Trone for moderating those sessions and to the powerful panelists who generously shared their time and expertise - Kyle Boenisch-Oakes, Lucy Molina, Ashley Stolzmann, Tiff Boyd, and KK DuVivier. Climate organizations tabling at the event gave participants ways to get involved in climate action (Activate!).
Planning for this event took most of the club year and took a dedicated team, including every member of the Advocacy Committee and Club member Kay Meyer to develop a pitch-perfect event. Feedback from the audience and participants was overwhelmingly positive. In the end, this was a club-wide effort, and we thank Nancy Rowe for kicking off the program, the PR Committee for getting the word out to build an audience and the EducateZ, the ZClub and Service for helping at the event.
Our Commitment to the Fight Against Child Marriage
Child Marriage Bill SB26-048
This bill has been the focal point of our year of “legislative advocacy” led by Lisa Lesniak. She worked with both Senate and House legislative sponsors, as well as Unchained At Last - a nationwide anti-child marriage advocacy organization, to develop and advocate for this bill which would ban child marriage completely for anyone under age 18 - with no exceptions.
The bill passed the State Senate and was first heard in a Colorado House Committee on April 6th. Members Ranelle Randles, Colleen Farrell, Jan Cheney and Sheila King were all present to support the bill. Lisa Lesniak gave testimony to the committee on Zonta Foothill’s behalf. The bill's sponsors, advocacy organizations and several brave child marriage survivors made compelling cases for the bill.
The bill passed out of the committee but only after an amendment, introduced by a bill sponsor, was attached to the bill. The amendment undercuts the intent of the bill, allowing marriage licenses for those 16 or 17 years old and partners up to 10 years older. Zonta Foothills and the Zonta USA Caucus as well as our partner advocacy organizations withdrew all support for the bill and actively opposed passage. The bill is on track to be signed by the Governor in May.
We learned many lessons regarding coalition building, the need to gather compelling statistics and engage opponents in meaningful dialogue. We will be back with another “clean” marriage bill in a future year.
Taking Back the Night on Boulder County’s College Campuses
Take Back the Night Events
On April 9th, we were once again the proud sponsors of Front Range Community College’s annual Take Back the Night event on April 9th. Advocacy Committee member Pam Malzbender was joined by Marta Lindrose and Sue Stapleton at our club’s information table. With other organizations like SPAN, Safe Shelter, The SANE Nurse Program, and many others, they spoke to dozens of FRCC students about Zonta’s mission and our mission to prevent gender-based violence. Community speakers, including Longmont’s Mayor, Susie Hidalgo-Fahring, spoke about their commitment to standing up to sexual violence. “In Longmont, we are working to build trust and ensure that every resident, regardless of immigration status, can access public safety services,” Hidalgo-Fahring said. “Safety should never depend on where you were born, and justice should never depend on your immigration status,” she said. The speakers were followed by a candlelight vigil honoring survivors.
Zonta Foothills supported the University of Colorado’s Take Back the Night program for the first time this year. This event is relatively new and not well-established, but we felt it was important for our club to support the effort because at CU there high incidence of sexual assault on campus. Held on the Norlin Library Quad on April 8th, it was sponsored by Students Against Campus Sexual Assault (SACSA), Sigma Psi Zeta Sorority (SPZ), and Zonta Foothills Foundation. The event included speakers, tabling, and a march around campus. The keynote speaker, a survivor of a rape on campus in 2017, filed a Title IX complaint against CU, and her self-advocacy and actions in part became the reason that CU strengthened on-campus support systems such as the Office of Victim’s Assistance, Health Promotion, and the Office of Institutional Equity and Inclusion.
Torii Kaleba, President of SACSA shared the following after the event: “We are thankful to your foundation for instilling hope and inspiring us to take action within our community to help create a safer world. We are excited to continue our efforts next year and hope to connect with you about how we might enhance our impact and reach our goals.” Big thanks to Advocacy Committee member, Elizabeth Freedman, who persevered to support the organization’s planning the event.
Launching the Katharine Booth Award
In late April, Sheila King, Jan Cheney, and Pam Malzbender finalized a months-long planning effort to establish a new partnership between Zonta Foothills Club and the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office - Domestic Violence Acute Response Team (DVART).
Beginning in May 2026, we launched a $5,000 paid summer clerkship for a law student working in the DA’s office. Currently, BoCo DA clerkships are unpaid. Our sponsored clerkship allows the DVARTs team to recruit and hire law students interested in a career in the prosecution of crimes involving gender-based violence, who might not otherwise be able to accept an unpaid position.
The newly created Zonta Foothills - Katharina Booth Award, named in honor of a respected, longtime member of the district attorney’s office, expands Zonta Foothills impact in the area of domestic violence and sexual assault prevention and victim support. In giving the DA’s Domestic Violence Acute Response Team this new recruiting tool of a paid clerkship, we hope to help them build a staff of prosecutors dedicated to this important work. Applications are currently open. You can learn more about Katharina Booth and our award on our website.
The Advocacy Committee - Co-Chairs Sheila King and Jan Cheney, Elizabeth Freedman, Sara Gillespie, Sharon Goodman, Lisa Lesniak, Pam Malzbender, Ranelle Randles, Dana Rae Vaughn
Educatez Scholarship Committee
Thank You For an Amazing Year
The Educatez Scholarship Committee is looking forward to a well-deserved break after what has been an amazing year. We kicked things off with the Women in Business Leadership Award process, and since then, the committee has coordinated the reading a total of ___ applications for six of our foundation’s scholarship programs. The Educatez Scholarship Committee is responsible for the recruitment, review, and selection of:
In total, the Zonta Foothills Foundation awarded $______ in scholarships for 2025-26 to ____ inspiring women who are continuing their education thanks to our support.
This work wouldn’t be possible without the dedication of our committee, which coordinated the administration of each program, our Zonta Foothills Club members who volunteered to read the applications, complete with essays, transcripts, recommendations, resumes, Curriculum vitae(CV), scientific essays, videos… PHEW! It is a lot of hard work that paid off. This year, we sent three of our first-place winners on to win at the District 12 and Zonta International levels. Impressing everyone with their accomplishments. Congratulations and thank you everyone. our Club members, teachers, counselors, advisors, and of course, our donors who make it all possible.
The EducateZ Scholarship Committee - Co-Chairs Nancy Rowe and Michelle Médal, Kristi Celico, Ann Herrmann, Kay Meyer, Amanda Eisnes
Zonta Educatez Committee
Closing Out an Amazing School Year and Celebrating our Seniors
The month of April has been spent building a Culture of Respect at Boulder High School, and what a busy campaign it was! First, the Club hung posters around the school to spread this important Respect pledge.
They produced an important PantherTV video that spread their message, and in partnership with the girls’ soccer team, they held a pledge signing at the April 21st varsity game against Prairie View High School. All members of the BHS JV and Varsity teams work teal ribbons to support our campaign, and Club Co-Presidents Lily Beacom and Casey Giron asked everyone to join in their pledge during halftime while Club members communicated their message from the field with BIG letters spelling our C U L T U R E O F R E S P E C T.
Finally, they concluded their project with a pledge signing during common lunch that same week.
Help Us Celebrate Our ‘26 Pantherz Z Club and Golden Z Club Scholarship Recipients
The EducateZ Committee is proud to award more than $25,000 in scholarships this year to hard-working and committed Z and Golden Z Club members who have helped to grow our Clubs and are committed to giving back to their communities. At our May meeting, we will honor our scholarship recipients.
Upcoming dates:
Upcoming May events:
May 12th 4:30-5:30 PM: End-of-year party for BHS seniors at the UMC CU Boulder
May 14th 5:30-7:30 ZClub and GoldenZ Scholarship Celebration
May 17th 9 a.m., BHS graduation at CU Events Center
Can you also add a reminder to RSVP to the upcoming club meeting?
May 27th Golden Z Club Investing workshop
Golden Z Club Building for Their Futures
GoldenZ hosted its second MyWealthBeing workshop about Taxes. Ricardo from MyWealthBeing motivated the entire group to file their taxes and to not be afraid to do it on their own! The group had great questions and took advantage of asking personal questions after the presentation was over. Our next session will be on May 27th, when we will discuss investing.
- May 27th 5-7pm My WealthBeing Workshop #3 on Investing at the church
Zonta Educatez Committee - Co-Chairs Gaby Lopez & Claudia Ibarra, Tommie Atanasoff, Michelle Carpenter, Kay James, Marta Lindrose, Pam Malzbender
Governance and Engagement Committee
Getting to Know our New Members
The Governance Committee hosted our new member brunch on April 11 and had a wonderful time getting to know Stephanie, Susan, Deb, and Kathy. We shared information about the Club and highlighted the important work of each committee. It was wonderful to chat and get to know these great new members a little better.
We will be putting together a few social events over the summer and will be on the lookout for our Zappy Hour! Coming in August. Think about who you will invite to help us kick off our new year! More info to come!
The Governance and Engagement Committee - Co-Chairs Colleen Farrell and Pam Malzbender, Sarah Gillespie, Claudia Ibarra, Nancy Rowe
Community Outreach Committee
Summer Catch Up
The summer is our time for updating things…Publicity materials like handouts, booth materials, the website, and other things that we use to get the word out about our important programs. We also need to look at our mailing lists and consolidate our various lists so that we are ready for outreach in 26-27. If you would like to help with that effort, please let us know! We will be putting our heads together over the next few months, mostly via Zoom.
We need people with ideas, writing skills, and a willingness to learn some of our communications software
Thanks for your help!
Committee - Co-Chairs Sheila Cohen and Pam Malzbender, Kathy Hundman, Debbie Nasta, Michelle Medal, Joan Siebenaler,