The Zonta Club of Petoskey has a rich and wonderful history since its charter on December 13, 1971.
Sponsored by the Zonta Club of Lansing, our charter night was May 20, 1972. There were 25 charter members. The club took its role as a service club very seriously and immediately became an integral part in the fabric of the Petoskey area. Meetings were regularly publicized in the Petoskey News-Review as well as new officer installations.
The club was also highly engaged in fundraising to support local needs. The annual fashion show began in 1972 as the primary fundraiser for the club. An institution now at 52 years, the fashion show remains one of the social events on the Petoskey calendar and continues to command attendance at over 300 individuals. The money raised by the fashion show goes to support many initiatives and organizations that work to advance the status of women, as well as support needs that improve the quality of life in our community.
Other fundraisers by the club included the annual Bowl-A-Thon, the Phantom Ball, the Yellow Rose Campaign and more. The Fashion Show remains today as our top fundraiser.
Local Community Support
The Zonta Club of Petoskey donated more than $150,000 in its first 25 years to local community activities. In its 52-year history, more than $380,000 has been given to charities and activities that meet our mission.
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1978 – The Club raised money to provide the Jaws of Life to the Emmet County Sheriff’s Department.1982 – Provided one of the initial donations to open and operate the Safe Home. |  |
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1986 – Raised $3,000 for the Camp Daggett land acquisition.1989 – Raised close to $3,000 to provide a Vetter air lift bag to the Resort-Bear Creek Fire Department and Rescue Squad.
1994 – Raised more than $16,000 to provide a hydraulic ram to be used with the Jaws of Life. 1996 – Gave a start-up gift of $10,000 to the Petoskey Harbor Springs Area Community Foundation to start a fund that supports women and children. |
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1998 to present – Provides $2,500 annually to the Women’s Resource Center of Northern Michigan to support a scholarship for women at North Central Michigan College.1999 – Raised $52,000 to provide three thermal imaging cameras for local area fire departments. This was done in seven months. |  |
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2002 – Contributed $10,000 to the Northern Michigan Hospital Foundation to equip a special treatment room in the Emergency Department.2011 – Donated $7,500 to North Central Michigan College for its new Health Education and Science Center. |  |
The Club also supported the Partners in Progress Building Campaign for the Student and Community Resource Center at the college. Other contributions over the years have gone to youth programs in area schools, the Health Department, Housing Coalition, Nehemiah House and Nehemiah House II Projects, The Living Room, Little Traverse Historical Society, Retired Senior Volunteers Program, Crooked Tree Art Center, Junior Achievement, the Community Free Clinic.
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Ending Violence Against Women Activities
Petoskey Area ZONTA Club has been an integral player in ending violence against women since 1983 by working with the Women’s Resource Center of Northern MI (WRCNM) who operates the local domestic abuse program. Every year the Club has adopted a bedroom at the area domestic abuse shelter. Rotating each year between five bedrooms, members paint the walls, provide new carpeting, provide all new bed ensembles, and purchase anything that may be needed in the designated room. When the shelter first opened in its present location, in 1982, the Club was one of the first donors, giving $1,000 towards getting the facility up and running.
Additionally, ZONTA annually supports the shelter with an additional $1,000 donation and collects non-perishable food and paper products to be used in this 25 bed facility housing 150+ women and children each year. This practice has been going on since the early 90s.
Throughout the 36 years the domestic abuse shelter program has been generously supported through the local club. When renovations/additions/capitol campaign projects happened in 1985, 1992, and 2004, the club jumped on board with major project donations of $5,000-10,000 for each one of these undertakings.
Members have also been active by participating in volunteer activities and individually donating to the Resale Shops run by the WRCNM to help support its many services. Within the past seven years the club has been instrumental in partnering with WRCNM to provide community education and awareness activities around the issues of violence against women. The Club helped to sponsor the purchase of the film to provide multiple community viewings of “Miss Representation”; has co-hosted 2 luncheons with the community college and WRCNM to provide education during Sexual Assault Awareness Month and Domestic Abuse Awareness month; annually devotes ZONTA program meetings to educating our members to these grave issues, not only locally, but nationally and internationally.
Non-Traditional Career Day: An Effort to Equalize the Economics of Working Women
The Non-Traditional Career Day is provided each year to high school junior girls. This project began in 1989 and has been an annual event ever since, held at the local community college. Petoskey Area ZONTA is one of three community partner organizations to make this motivational day occur in northern Michigan. Annually, more than 100 girls participate representing as many as 10 area high schools.
The impetus behind this project is to expose young women to jobs they may not think about because they have been traditionally held by men. Traditional women’s jobs usually pay far less in wages – the project is done to expand the potentiality of better careers and life-long earnings. This day features six women in non-traditional careers (often Zontians) talking about their careers for part of the day, and a motivational speaker to challenge and enhance their thinking about what they may aspire to.
Mastectomy Pillow Project
The mastectomy pillow project began 2003 and continues to present day. The club secures donations of fabric and stuffing and working together at meetings and work groups, create mastectomy pillows for women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer at McLaren Northern Michigan hospital. At the onset, the club donated 10 pillows per month.
The club now donates 60 pillows per year.
Support of Zontians
The Zonta Club of Petoskey has sponsored three new Zonta Clubs in the northern Michigan area: Sault Ste. Marie – chartered in 1978. Rogers City – chartered in 1980. Charlevoix Club – chartered in 1989. We have hosted the District 15 Fall Conference twice – in 1993 and in 2007 and one Spring Workshop in 1976.
We also provided support for the International Conference in Detroit. We hosted the Spring Workshop in 2017. In 2005, we nominated Lindsay Millard who won the Amelia Earhart Award. Dr. Millard now works for DARPA with focus areas including space-based imagers, sensor data processing and increasing the resilience of the U.S. space architecture through disruptive technology. Areas of technical interest and expertise include hyper-spectral imaging, sparse-aperture telescopes, computer vision, image processing and low-cost optical materials.
Honors and Awards
The Zonta Club of Petoskey’s members have been honored in many ways by our community and state. Most notably are our members who have received the local Athena Award. The Athena Award Program, sponsored by Dave Kring Chevrolet-Cadillac, celebrates the potential of all women as valued members and leaders of the community, and recognizes those who support them. The Athena Award honors individuals who strive toward the highest levels of professional accomplishment…women and men who excel in their chosen field, have devoted time and energy to their community in a meaningful way, and who also open paths so that others may follow.
- 1993 – Janice Smolinski
- 1994 – Jan Mancinelli
- 1997 – Ann Smith
- 1998 – Judy Mainland
- 1999 – Linda Hume
- 2001 – Maureen Nicholson
- 2003 – Margaret Ruemanapp
- 2011 – Sherry McGuffin
- 2016 – Kathy Bardins