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The Zonta Club of the La Salle-Peru Area hosted a spring workshop at Illinois Valley Community College recently, an event attended by women in leadership from across the central and northern Illinois region, Delores Robinson, vice president of Zonta Club of La Salle-Peru area said in a news release.
The workshop concluded with a toast to the 100th anniversary of the La Salle-Peru Area Club, established in 1926 by area women who sought to join Zonta International, in its mission of building a better world for women and girls.
Tracy Morris, IVCC’s second woman president and first former student of the college to achieve the role of president opened the event, alluded to the efforts of women to improve their lives and the lives of their children through their dedication to education, her own mother being one of those women.
Morris said she attended the IVCC Nursing Program’s pinning ceremony as a young child, where her mother and other newly graduated nurses were honored.
“All I knew at the time was how pretty my mom looked [in her nurse uniform],” Morris said in a news release. “It was only years later when I realized her determination as a single mother and college student, studying by flashlight in the closet so as not to wake her children, among other sacrifices.”
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According to the news release, Morris applauded the efforts of Zonta International, to make the world safer and more inclusive of women and girls as leaders, as she spoke about her promotion of several women to leadership roles at the college. She also remarked on the 100th anniversary of the college occurring along with the 100th anniversary of the Zonta Club of the La Salle-Peru Area.
Area 5 Director Kelly J. LaMore (Kankakee Club) welcomed participants to the workshop, themed “Focus on the Future—Together” during which officers from throughout the district reported on national and international initiatives including ending child marriage, supporting passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, raising scholarship funds for women’s educational goals, and advocating for women’s safety and equitable treatment in all facets of life, according to the news release.
Robinson said the workshop’s raffle proceeds will support the Zonta Foundation for Women and its work to prevent violence against women and girls and help survivors of violence rebuild their lives, enable girls to learn in safe and inclusive environments, work to end child marriage and increase access to opportunities in educational and professional fields in which women are underrepresented.
The La Salle-Peru Club assembled a raffle basket filled with items symbolic of all the restrictions placed on women 100 years ago including membership in certain professions; freedom from restrictive gender roles; legal freedoms including, in some states, the right to serve on a jury; enter into a contract; hold political office; freedom to divorce or retain sole custody of children; hold a passport in her own name; work while pregnant; or enlist in the military.
Zonta District 6 is part of Zonta International, a leading global organization of professionals empowering women worldwide through service and advocacy. Zonta International is closely affiliated with the United Nations and its agencies (Eleanor Roosevelt and Amelia Earhart were early Zontians). More information can be found online for any person interested in supporting the efforts of this organization.