Greetings!

Our president's dinner included a delicious selection of international foods, featuring Czech, Swedish, French, German, Italian, Mexican and American, to name a few. We enjoyed an Italian chicken salad, a Swedish rice pudding, a Czech vegetable salad and German chocolate cake. Thank You everyone who brought food. We raised $160 for our service projects.

Our guests included Evelyn, Kermit and Lois M. Evelyn has decided that she missed Zonta – so she has joined for the upcoming year! Welcome back Evelyn! We missed you too!

Lois gave us a presentation about a project that she has recently become involved in, and has called it “Adopt a Grandmother”, which is in the beginning stages. She has a contact who is a sister working in Kenya trying to help mothers and grandmothers avoid the “inheritance” issues of their culture. The inheritance issue arises when a woman’s husband dies, leaving her alone. It is the standard custom for the husband’s brother(s) to bring the widow into his home. Oftentimes, the widow becomes a sex slave for the brother. Many women are beginning to band together to find alternative ways of providing their children and themselves with shelter and food without having to marry the brother. These women often become ostracized from the community, making it even more difficult for them to exist. One of the ways that these women have been able to avoid the inheritance issue is to start a business and become self-sufficient. Lois is hoping to provide resources for those women for venture start up costs so that they can lead safe, happy and productive lives without having to marry the brother of their deceased husband. We hope to hear more from Lois in the coming months to see how we might be able to help.

Our next meeting has been rescheduled to Thursday, September 20, 2007. Dorothy has reserved a private room at George’s on Plato (formerly Awada’s on Plato) for that evening. Plan on arriving around 5 p.m. After dinner we will carpool to the Science museum to see the Pompeii exhibit. Lou has been to the exhibit and tells me that it is a really interesting exhibit. It takes about 1 to 1½ hours and the audio device is included in the ticket price. I encourage you to all consider inviting a friend or two to join us. I have enclosed a copy of the lunch menu from Awada’s (which has been retained by George’s). The dinner prices will be slightly higher (approximately $2 per entrée). We have been told that we can order ½ orders too, since the portions may be larger than we might want.

Please let Dorothy know by Monday, September 17^th if you are coming and if you are bringing a guest. Judy will order tickets for our group (so that we can get the group rate pricing).The ticket orders were due by Friday, September 7th. If you haven’t confirmed your attendance with Judy, please do so ASAP and she will try to get them ordered. At this time, there are not enough Zontians and guests signed up for the group rate, so it appears that the tickets will be $15. The tickets are non-refundable, so if you have committed to attending, you will be responsible to pay for the ticket(s). Please pay Judy at the event.

Last year Lila Moen shared with us a suggestion from the International convention – encourage the clubs to have more fun! We are off to a great start.