The Zonta Club of the Joliet Area (ZJCA) premiered our podcast, Zonta on the Move, in October 2022. 
 

Episode #1

For the premiere, ZCJA PR Chair and Executive Producer, Bonnie Winfrey, interviewed several guest speakers. Bonnie welcomed and introduced fellow co-hosts, Zontians and PR Committee members Pat Perrier and Lisa Pappas, as well as ZCJA President Beth Colvin. Next, we heard from ZCJA member and Zonta District 6 Area Director Mary Baudino, who explained the Zonta organization, which has more than 27,000 members in 62 countries world-wide.
 

Our featured speaker was Bram Kleppner, great-nephew of Amelia Earhart, the most famous Zontian of all. Amelia joined Zonta in the 1930s prior to her disappearance and had a profound impact as a woman in the aviation field. Because of that legacy, Zonta International established the Amelia Earhart Fellowship program in which a US$10,000 Fellowship is awarded annually to up to 30 women pursuing Ph.D./doctoral degrees in aerospace engineering and space sciences. Since the program’s inception in 1938, Zonta has awarded 1,704 Amelia Earhart Fellowships, totaling more than US$11.3 million, to 1,275 women from 76 countries.
 

Mr. Kleppner, CEO of Danforth Pewter, delighted us with stories and history of his family, with a long line of fierce women, including his 91 year old mother and her mother, Amelia's sister, Muriel. Their mother was amazing in her own right, having been one of the first women to have successfully climbed Pike's Peak.

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Listen on Spotify at: https://open.spotify.com/show/6uFJVLEIANRUFajSTUKAPk

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Episode #2

The November 2022 episode coincides with Domestic Violence Awareness Month and Zonta's 16 Days of Activism campaign, Zonta Says No to Violence. Zontian Pat Perrier leads a discussion with Joliet native, Amirrah Abou-Youssef.

Ms. Abou-Youssef received her Bachelor of Science from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign in Psychology, with a Minor in Gender and Women’s Studies in 2010. She completed her Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy from Adler University in 2012. She has worked in family violence for over 10 years in the Will County community,  is a Certified Domestic Violence Professional and currently sits on the Board of Directors for the Illinois Certified Domestic Violence Professionals, Inc. She most recently was working with Guardian Angel Community Services and has now transitioned to working for the Illinois Family Violence 12th Circuit Court as a Local Council Coordinator. Amirrah shares her experiences with law enforcement, with the circuit court, Will County, and the many women and children she has helped in her rewarding career.

 

Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4SpBfW5qRzUmaCHSwN97VX

Listen on Google: http://bit.ly/3OLtSOt

Or wherever you listen to podcasts

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Episode #3
The December 2022 episode examines the Kankakee Club's 2016 domestic violence and human trafficking campaign and partnership with Hoekstra Transportation that honored the club's 60th anniversary. Hoekstra Transportation wrapped two semi-trailers with the Zonta Says No To Violence slogan along with contact information for assistance and reporting of cases of domestic violence or human trafficking. The trucking company has been training and certifying truckers in how to spot human trafficking on the road. And the trucks are still out on the roads getting the message out today. 

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Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/12sEHB6C3UTwOGyIdsxenw?si=3z2x4wUlRIqkcWxV182VSw

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Episode #4

We talk with Lauren Matovu of Serve for Hope Uganda, about one of their initiatives, Pads for Hope.

 

Serve for Hope Uganda became a registered NGO in Uganda in 2014 and partners with a 501(c)3 in the U.S. called Venture Corps. Serve for Hope Uganda is dedicated to a holistic transformation of communities by empowering women and children to achieve their full potential in society. Lauren, an American, from the suburbs of Chicago, founded Serve for Hope with her husband, Leonard Matovu, of Uganda.

 

Serve for Hope's program, Pads for Hope, provides menstrual hygiene education and reusable pads to adolescent and teenage girls across Uganda. Just $10 provides one girl with the education and pads she needs for one year! The Pads for Hope program started in November 2017 with community sensitization (menstrual hygiene education). In March 2018, Serve for Hope began distributing reusable/washable menstrual pads in conjunction with the community sensitization. Since March 2018, over 2,000 girls have been reached through this program.

 

Menstruation is a taboo topic in many villages in Uganda; the stigma of it being "unclean" remains. Pads for Hope brings awareness and learning opportunities for the least privileged youth in hard-to-reach areas. Through learning sessions they have community and school dialogues on various topics like the menstrual cycle and menstrual hygiene management. The relevancy of educating girls about menstrual hygiene management is to emphasize that menstruation is a normal biological process.

Learn more about Serve for Hope at http://www.serveforhope.org/getinvolved.

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Listen wherever you get your podcasts, including on Spotify.  

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Episode #5

In this episode, host Bonnie Winfrey speaks with author Betty Major-Rose and Pastor Beverly Tucker about how to cope after tragedy strikes. Both of these remarkable women were sources of comfort and inspiration to host Bonnie Winfrey when her family experienced an unthinkable tragedy. 

Listen on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. 

 

Episode #6
This episode, co-hosts Lisa, Bonnie and Pat talk with fellow long-time Joliet Zontian Pam Hunte. Pam, who has a PhD in cultural anthropology and a fascinating career that took her all over the world, shares her experiences teaching in Afghanistan with the Peace Corps in the late 60s as well as her experiences working and consulting with NGOs in third world countries, including in Afghanistan. Pam's career has certainly mirrored the Zonta motto of making the world a better place for girls and women. 

Listen on Spotify. 

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