Back row, from left: Patti Storer, Sharon Awe, Kelly Jacobsen, Ashley Zamora, Lissette Magana, Chris Huff and Susan Harmon. Front row: Rachel Wrze, Valerie O’Brien, Elizabeth Kahle and Audrey Maske.

Local women become part of new Golden Z Club charter [November 02, 2012]  CHAMPAIGN -- A new service club for youth -- dedicated to providing career guidance and promoting leadership skills, international fellowship and the ideal of service -- was chartered on Oct. 27 at the I Hotel in Champaign. Zonta District 6 Gov. Linda Hiltabrand and Suzanne Leeke, District 6 Z Club/Golden Z Club chairman, presented the charter to the Golden Z Club. There are four charter members under the direction of the club's president, Elizabeth Kahle.

The Zonta Club of Lincoln will act in an advisory capacity for the new club.

The University of Illinois Champaign Golden Z Club is one of the youth groups of Zonta International, the worldwide service organization of executives in business and the professions, working together to advance the status of women.

Golden Z Club members undertake service projects benefiting their school, community and the world. They promote the development of leadership ability and good character, and they strive for scholastic achievement and the improvement of international understanding through service.

The Golden Z Club in Champaign is the first in District 6, which includes Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin.

Members of Zonta International support international service projects intended to advance the status of women, particularly in developing nations, and they fund the Amelia Earhart Fellowship awards, given annually to women pursuing graduate study in aerospace-related sciences and engineering. Zonta International enjoys nongovernmental organization status with the United Nations and consultative status with several of its agencies. As of spring 2011, there were approximately 30,000 Zontians belonging to more than 1,200 clubs in approximately 63 countries and geographic areas.

[Text from file received from the Zonta Club of Lincoln]