A new service club for college students dedicated to promoting leadership skills, international
fellowship and a dedication to service was chartered last Thursday at SamB’s Restaurant in Bowling
Green.
The evening began with a celebratory dinner at which Zonta District 5 Lt. Governor Ellen Spaeth presented
the charter to the Bowling Green State University Golden Z Club. There are 10 charter members under the
direction of the club’s president, Rachelle Muckensturm.
BGSU’s Golden Z Club is part of Zonta International, a worldwide service organization of executives in
business and the professions working together to advance the status of women.
The Zonta Club of Bowling Green, which was formed in 1999, is acting in an advisory capacity for the BGSU
Golden Z Club.
The formation of a chapter at BGSU is "significant," according to Zonta’s Tina Bradley,
"because there are only a few campus Golden Z chapters in the world."
"We believe that there may be three in Ohio," she added, with the nearest until now at Denison
University in Granville.
In contrast to Golden Z, Zonta is found in many cities in Ohio and nationally. In fact, the Bowling Green
Zonta Club is one of more than 1,250 clubs in nearly 70 countries worldwide.
Local Zonta members in attendance at the dinner were President Deborah Wooldridge, Bradley, Kathy East,
Becky Bhaer, Michelle Grigore, Linda Kohler, Mona Jhuremelani, Karmen Concannon, Elaine McEwen,
Catharine Harned, Cindy Hollinger, Lori Tretter, Melinda Kale and Deb Goldberg.
Nine of the BGSU charter members were present Thursday for the festivities. Along with Muckensturm, they
are Gretchen Avery, Allana Boone, Kelsey Buckley, Maria Hale, Kathryn Koller, Sarah Lieberum, Renae
Muckensturm and Sierra Smith. Rachel Letwin was not able to attend.
Several guests were also on hand, among them Bowling Green Mayor Dick Edwards and his wife Nadine; Kristi
Bryant, district Golden Z chairperson; and Marianne Mussett, Zonta area one director.
The fledgling Golden Z chapter is hitting the ground running, with several service projects already under
way, including and end-of-semester campus wide collection of usable items to benefit the local Cocoon
Shelter as well as Goodwill Industries.
Future service projects will benefit not only the university but also the community of Bowling Green and
the world. An example is an Area 1 project with which Rachelle Muckensturm was involved – assembling
birthing kits for distribution in Cambodia.