Service Projects

Zonta Club of Nanaimo

Advancing the Status of Women Worldwide

Service Projects

Club projects include the Zonta Red Gala for Heart and Stroke, the Bone China Tea for Osteoporosis; Antique Appraisal Show; the annual International Womens Day celebration, the Young Women in Public Affairs Award for School District 68; reception for new Canadians at Citizenship Courts in Nanaimo; as well as supporting programs that encourage the education and health for families. Zonta is an international organization which supports equality and portrays a global perspective with local community commitments. The club chartered in 1993 in Nanaimo.

Pearson College of the Pacific

This is a District 8 project for the College situated at Pedder Bay, near Metchosin, south of us. This College is now in its 30^th year and the Board Chairman is Queen Mother Noor of Jordan. She succeeded Nelson Mandela in this position.

Our club is usually given a house to connect with the students; we have been doing this since we chartered; we forward funds and gifts for the students and attend their One World concert in February.

October of this year we will be attending the Zonta District 8 Seminar in Victoria and visiting Pearson College for dinner and a tour on the Friday evening of Thanksgiving week end. This is an inspiring philosophy and an inspiring setting for a school. Students do not pay any fees to attend. They come from all countries and 20% of the student body is Canadian.

Zonta Red Gala

This event , the social spot to be in February every year; started out as Ladies in Red; this was often confused with another group; so we changed the name.   This is new; we only held our first evening of red fun and fantasy back in 2004! Seems hard to believe, but we have had 3 of these occasions and our new member, Gwyn Amat, flies in from Calgary to be our Mistress of Ceremonies every year.

Each year attendance has doubled and in 2006 we were able to assist the Heart and Stroke Foundation with an amount raised for them of $6.000.   This is our health related project for the club and it is very good for raising the profile of the club in the community.


Citizenship Court 2007-08

Nine Citizenship Courts were held to welcome new Canadians in Nanaimo; hosted by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. The reception portion of the program is presented by the Zonta Club of Nanaimo members and volunteers.

There was an average of 55 new Canadians at each ceremony along with over 100 supporters of family and friends.
The newcomers originated from an average of 26 countries of birth; bringing a diversity and variety of skills, ages, religions and experience to the mix.

Refreshments are donated by a local grocer and include: Nanaimo bars and maple leaf cookies with juice/ coffee, etc.

Young Women in Public Affairs

This award was started in 1996 with the first award to Danielle Gauthier of Woodlands and the second to Diana Stech of Wellington Secondary. This is a most successful program and this past year we had 2 young women from Wellington receive awards again.

Race Relations

This program , a partnership with the Central Vancouver Island Multicultural Society is now in its 8^th year and there are now 3 awards to be handed out: two young women from NDSS and one from Wellington will receive these at Multicultural’s AGM, June 21^st.

Malaspina University College

We have funded bursaries, scholarships and now we are increasing our commitment to our Zonta Endowment Fund. This has been a long term goal; we are attacking this goal with determination and vision. We hope to raise the amounts in all three programs.