March 2015 Newsletter
FINANCE
We love our projects but can’t do them without cash! If you haven’t already, invite your friends and neighbors to the Wine Tasting on March 28 at Saddleback Designs. Encourage them to buy wine or silent auction items. We are looking for donations for the silent auction—ask the people you do business with for items. We are also assembling themed gift baskets—an Italian basket, a spa basket, and a dog basket. If you have items to donate for any of these or can solicit items from vendors, bring them to the March 26 meeting—just in time for the event.
The golf tournament is coming June 15 at Red Rocks Country Club. Start talking to sponsors and golfers. Save-the-Date cards will be out soon!
ADVOCACY
Women’s Legislative Breakfast
The 26th Annual Colorado Women’s Legislative Breakfast was held on February 24th at the Scottish Rite Masonic Temple. After breakfast, a Legislative Panel consisting of several bipartisan representatives and senators answered questions relating to pending and contemplated legislation as well as compelling issues and challenges facing our state.
Some of the issues discussed were workforce development, how to get high school graduates prepared to work in good paying jobs; overall improvement of education for all; creation of a simultaneous associate degree program upon graduation from high school; affordable housing; and there was a lot of discussion on HB1100 which increases appropriations to Older Coloradans Fund.
Keynote speaker was Sue Bozinovski, PhD, manager of Adams County Special Programs and her area of interest is aging. It was agreed, by both legislators and Ms. Bozinovski that the increasing number of aging baby boomers is going to be a huge challenge to the state’s resources. On the other hand, it is estimated that approximately 340,000 new jobs will be created to care for the aging so a work force will need to be trained. The 65+ populations will increase more than 60% between 2010 and 2020 and more than double between 2010 and 2030.
Funding has been cut in OCP services, which include meals, home delivered meals, transportation, legal assistance, caregiver support and personal care. Requests for these services are $15.3 million but only $8.3 million in state and federal funds are available. So, watch HB1100! It is very easy to track the status and explanation of all bills at www.lwvcolorado.org where the League of Women Voters of Colorado do an excellent job of analysis in their Legislative Letter.
Legislators reminded constituents to contact them for help anytime additional assistance is needed from our agencies. Legislators’ offices are very adept at moving problems forward to solution when they bog down.
International Women’s Day Event
Our friends at Empowerment sponsored a Global Nonviolence Women’s Forum on the west steps of the Colorado State Capitol on Saturday, March 7th. Suzanne and Ginnie attended on our behalf and we will have a report on that event.
Happy International Women’s Day!
SERVICE
Service Committee Meeting
The service committee will meet Tuesday, March 31, at 6 p.m., at 1201 Humboldt Street, in the party room of Pat Parker’s condo. The committee will review grant applications and make recommendations for funding. All members are invited to attend.
Florence Crittenton Services
Miles for Moms Run/Walk to benefit Florence Crittenton Services will be held Saturday, May 9, 2015, from 8 to 11 a.m. at Sloan’s Lake Park. For more information check out flocritco.kintera.org/milesformoms2015 or talk to Jean Griswold.
Excelsior Youth Center Gala
Jan, Sharon, Ginni, Deb, Barb and Ellen all had a great evening at the Excelsior Gala at the Sheraton. It was fun to see everyone in their masquerade dress and masks, and the tables of all the silent auction items. They sold $4,800 in raffle tickets for a trip to New Orleans. Ellen, our games manager, played Vanna White on stage and spun the drum as the general manager drew the winning ticket for Christy Bishop.
The program was a tearjerker at times, and Roseanne Barr was honored as a triumphant woman and spoke about her life and struggles. About 600 people attended. The evening included a great live auction selling vacations (and a trip to the Indy 500) and evenings with a chef, and music by the Big Bad Voodoo Daddies with lots of dancing.
Excelsior –Sequoia Cottage
March 5th, Jan and Suzanne hosted a movie night with pizza as the featured event with soft drinks.
On April 2, Zonta II will host an Easter event with games, Easter basket decorating, with many treats to fill the baskets. If you are interested in joining the Excelsior Team, please contact Suzanne or Barbara.
SafeHouse
SafeHouse is hosting a new event in early June and will be asking for volunteers, so if you are interested in helping with an informal event, please save the date for the evening of Thursday, June 4. The event is called Sampling for Hope and will be held at the Redline Gallery at 2350 Araphahoe St. from 6:30-9:30 pm. Sampling for Hope will bring together some of the best chefs and caterers in Denver to create a casual evening featuring delicious bites and samples. More details to come.
The welcome bags were delivered as reported in February, and we are in need of floss and body lotion.
Three Teachers Awarded Grants
Chassity Ross from Mountain View Elementary in Broomfield
The Zonta Club of Denver II chose Chassity Ross to receive one of our $500 grants to enhance her classroom library. Ms. Ross will add more non-fiction texts to her first-grade classroom including National Geographic, biographies, personal narratives, procedural books and cookbooks. She will also add to her poetry collection so students can experience a completely different kind of writing and reading.
“These materials will help meet the Common Core requirements of critical thinking and analysis of feelings, emotions and experiences. Magazines are great ways to get kids into short passages that peak their interest and will lead them down the path of deeper exploration in other texts. I also want to expose kids to the way that magazines are set up. The layout and text features are important for students to experience and learn how to navigate,” she stated in her request for funding.
In addition to these materials, Ms. Ross will use the funding to by Applications for four iPad Minis the kids share during literacy center time.
Two DPS Teachers Awarded Grants for Literacy
The Zonta Club of Denver II also awarded $500 grants to two Denver Public School teachers.
Rhonda Rau, fifth grade teacher from Samuels Elementary, will use her grant to improve vocabulary for her struggling English Language Learners. She will use the funds to subscribe to Vocabularycity.com, to provided headphones for students to improve vocabulary, comprehension and pronunciation; and to purchase a few nonfiction science books at different reading levels to help her students better understand the science curriculum.
Lacey Rushkin, a middle school Theatre Arts teacher at Kunsmiller Creative Arts Academy, will use the funds to purchase several plays to use as anchor material to engage students and to increase literacy through the arts. She plans to buy multiple copies of scripts from plays that span Shakespeare to musical theatre. She will also purchase some plays and musicals to share with students digitally. Her philosophy and experience show that diverse learners can use singing, acting and dancing to facilitate creativity and literacy.
International Zonta Service Award
International has announced clubs may submit projects for Zonta Service Recognition Awards for 2014-2016. The same two categories that applied for last year’s awards will apply:
1) service projects that empower women and girls in general to achieve equal rights and to
secure their access to all legal, political, economic, educational, health and professional
resources; and
2) service projects focusing on prevention of the root causes of violence against women and
girls through education.
Club service projects (up to 2) must be sent to the District Governor, by email, by December 29, 2015. The District may also submit one service project by February 8, 2016. Our club submitted the Excelsior project for consideration for the prior award in the first category but was not selected at the District level. Anyone who has any ideas about a project and/or would be willing to work on it should contact Mary.
MEMBERSHIP
We are very excited to have Ginni Dickinson as a new member of Zonta. She is already playing an active role; she joined Suzanne earlier this month at the Capitol promoting Zonta and preventing violence against women. Since we cannot clone Ginni, we need member input into potential new members. We appreciate Marie bringing a guest to our March meeting – way to go, Marie! Please make a Note to Self: “Self–think of women in my circle of friends who would make good Zontians. Talk to them about Zonta and ask Jan or Carol J. to send them an e-mail invitation to the next general meeting.” There, that wasn’t so hard, was it?
COMMUNICATION
This month, the Public Relations-Communications Committee
• edited and published the newsletter;
• updated the calendar on the website;
• updated the front page of the website and created a PayPal link for our Wine Tasting Event;
• wrote and sent press releases about our teachers who were awarded grants to Denver Public Schools and Adams County Schools to publish in their online newsletters (which they did);
• and had table posters made to display at events for which we volunteer.