VENTURA : New Zonta Club Serves Women of West County

For a long time, members of the Zonta Club have jokingly referred to it as “the world’s best-kept secret.”

But the president of a newly chartered Ventura County chapter of the 75-year-old service club says it is time for more people to find out about it.

“People have heard about the Soroptimists and Rotary Club, but they go, ‘Zonta who?’ ” said Loma Siegel. “When I heard about what they do, I knew we needed a club here.”

Zonta is a service club whose goal is to promote the status of women as well as serve the communities around them, Siegel said. Similar in organization to traditional men’s service clubs, the first Zonta Club was founded in 1919 in Buffalo, N.Y., as a way for women to meet, make connections and serve their communities, said Martha Desch, a club spokeswoman.

“In those days, women could watch, but were not allowed to participate in the men’s clubs,” she said.

Zonta is now an international organization with 1,100 clubs in 61 countries, Desch said. The Zonta Club of Conejo Valley is 22 years old, she said. It traditionally sponsors the Special Kids Day at Conejo Valley Days, when children with disabilities have the carnival all to themselves.

Siegel and others decided last year to open a Zonta Club that would be more convenient for west county residents and workers, she said. The Zonta Club of Ventura County, headquartered in Ventura, was chartered March 25, she said.

Said Desch: “It’s nice for us to have another club right in our back yard.”

The group’s next meeting is at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Hilton Inn in Oxnard, she said. For information, call Desch at 498-2127.

Members are planning fund-raisers, including a picnic in July and a country fair in September, Siegel said. Money from the events will be used to help local philanthropic organizations that deal with women and women’s issues, including battered-women’s shelters and rape crisis counseling, she said.

Both Ventura County Zonta clubs are hoping to co-sponsor the annual Salute to Women awards, Siegel said. The awards normally are presented by the county’s Commission on Women, but budget cuts have forced cutbacks and the awards ceremony needs private money, she said.

The Zonta Club of Conejo Valley has 22 members; the newest club in the west county has about 25. But both clubs are always looking for new members, Siegel and Desch said.

Membership is not limited to professional women and includes homemakers and college students, Siegel said. “We try to strike a balance.”