About 800 people attended the Zonta Club of Jefferson City's Yellow Rose Luncheon at the Capitol Plaza Hotel on Tuesday afternoon, making it the club's best attended event in recent memory, organizers said.
The Jefferson City chapter of the nonprofit group Zonta International provides opportunities for women to develop leadership skills, explore career alternatives and work in service projects. The goal of the event is to raise money for scholarships it hands out to older students wanting to pursue secondary education.
More than 40 local companies sponsored the club's annual luncheon, where five scholarships were awarded. Seventeen other women were honored at the event for their contributions to the area's business community.
Sherri Elliott-Thomas, principal of Lewis and Clark Middle School, and Treaka Young, assistant state ombudsman at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, won the Zonta Club's Women of Achievement awards, which recognize awareness and appreciation of women in the community.
In all, 15 women were nominated for the two Women of Achievement awards, including Zora Mulligan, Missouri Department of Higher Education commissioner of higher education, and Sara Parker Pauley, director of the Missouri Department of Conservation.
Elliott-Thomas said she was born premature, so she later learned to fight for things. Looking out for people will get you far in business and life, though, she told the crowd.
"The most important thing in life is that you take the time to care about people," Elliott-Thomas said. "That's what women do. We set aside things that we know are hard for us and we smile and we make it all right for other people."
Zonta Club of Jefferson City President Peggy Jensen said about 100 more people attended the event this year than did last year. She said the community support each year makes the event possible.
"We couldn't do this without their support," Jensen said. "They always come out and support our scholarships."
In the event's 18-year history, the local Zonta Club has awarded more than $250,000 in scholarship money, Jensen said.
The club handed out $17,500 in scholarships Tuesday to five women awarded the annual second-chance scholarships. Two women were awarded $5,000 each, and three received $2,500 each. The scholarship is designed to help female students older than 24 attend college and help their families for generations to come.
Scholarship winner Anita Cole said she's been working on a degree in social science education at Lincoln University for seven years. She has a husband and three children, and also works at Lincoln University's Center for Teaching and Learning.
She said the money from the Zonta Club will help her complete her dream of getting her degree.
"Being an older student, it's not just the money," Cole told the crowd. "It's the support you get from the women of Zonta also. It will help me move from one point in my life where it's been kind of rough to another point where I feel it's more optimistic and I'm more hopeful."
Lorraine Mercurio, president of Saffees Fashions, won the Mrs. William H. Weldon Lifetime Achievement award. Her parents started the company as a Jefferson City furniture store in 1923 and began selling clothing two years later. At age 91, Mercurio still works at the store and has been with the company for more than 70 years.
"It's not work," Mercurio said. "Just going down and seeing people and talking to people. It makes me feel wonderful."
The group also honored Jefferson City native Laura Farris-Schuffman with its Celebration Award. She offered career advice as she told the story of her unlikely journey into the fashion industry.
Farris-Schuffman graduated from Jefferson City High School in 1995 and majored in secondary education at the University of Missouri. After her junior year of college, she and a friend decided to spend the summer in New York, simply to explore. Farris-Schuffman turned down a job offer to teach at JCHS after graduating from MU to pursue a career in the fashion industry.
"In New York, there was a fashion industry that I had never really known existed, and I was certain that I would be an amazing fit," she said.
Despite being unqualified for every job she applied for, Farris-Schuffman said she found an entry-level job that paid her exactly what she would have made as a teacher in Jefferson City. She put every dime into paying rent, but after one year, took a better paying job in the finance industry.
After that company downsized, she took a job at a talent management company in Los Angeles, where she worked for two years. For five more years she worked as a personal assistant for an executive in the entertainment industry, making connections that led to her second career in the fashion industry.
Seven years ago, Farris-Schuffman finally fulfilled her dream of working full time in the fashion industry. Today, she works as a freelance fashion stylist with clients including Eminem, Mischa Barton and Candace Cameron Bure.
"Every week is different. Every day there are new possibilities and challenges that keep my life interesting to say the least," she said Tuesday.