Girl Empowerment Day aims to expand youth interests

Liv Paggiarino/News Tribune photo: Z-Club member Sarah Case, center, plays a song by The Beatles while talking to girls about music and poetry during the Zonta Club’s Girl Empowerment Day on Saturday, May 8, 2021, at Memorial Park. Middle school-aged girls spent the day celebrating their creativity, strength, intelligence and so much more with group activities like poetry and music, self defense classes and financial skills learning, with presentations by women in various powerful positions, including Mayor Carrie Tergin and members of the Cole County Sheriff’s Department and Cole County EMTs.
Liv Paggiarino/News Tribune photo: Z-Club member Sarah Case, center, plays a song by The Beatles while talking to girls about music and poetry during the Zonta Club’s Girl Empowerment Day on Saturday, May 8, 2021, at Memorial Park. Middle school-aged girls spent the day celebrating their creativity, strength, intelligence and so much more with group activities like poetry and music, self defense classes and financial skills learning, with presentations by women in various powerful positions, including Mayor Carrie Tergin and members of the Cole County Sheriff’s Department and Cole County EMTs.

Students and speakers gathered Saturday at the Memorial Park Pavilion for the second Girl Empowerment Day, hosted by Z-Club, a program through Zonta International. The event's focus has been to learn from local speakers how to be empowered as women and how to empower women every day.

Girl Empowerment Day was founded in the midst of the pandemic, said Ramona Huckstep, coordinator of the event and Z-Club advisor. The first event in July 2020 had 24 girls present. At Saturday's event, 50 people showed up, some who were at the first event and returned for more of the same activities.

"Our whole goal is for them to have fun and build their confidence," she said. "We want them to build each other up and help each other out."

At the event, which ran from the morning into the early afternoon, students rotated to each breakout session, learning about topics ranging from self defense, financial planning, music and poetry, outdoor skills, online safety and more.

Z-Club members had a role to play in leading sessions as well. Some of the events, like the music and poetry breakout session, were hosted by Sarah Case and Rheanna Belt, Z-Club members who came up with the idea.

There, students sat on picnic tables as Z-Club leaders asked the crowd to raise their hands if they enjoy music or performing. Some stood up and read poetry from notebooks they'd been given that day.

"We have high school girls who are taking the lead and learning how to (be empowered) themselves," Huckstep said.

At the self defense class, Rob and Oly Warner rolled mats onto a nearby green field and taught jiu-jitsu tactics to overpower an attacker.

"Jiu-jitsu is about using leverage to defeat someone stronger than you," Rob Warner said. "Don't just be nice. If you feel uncomfortable, say it. If you feel uncomfortable, there's a reason for it."

During an outdoor skills breakout, David Stonner, of the Missouri Department of Conservation, taught students how to start fires and roast marshmallows over them.

"We could go on 'Survivor'!" student Shannen Dollar said as her group successfully started a fire.

Cole County Emergency Medical Services Battalion Chief Gretchen Bodley had the chance to speak with students about being a female in male-dominated industry throughout her career. Interviewing for fire service and EMS SWAT positions in the 1990s, she didn't know how to respond when she couldn't get a job as a female - she thought her qualifications spoke for themselves.

"Knowing what I went through in the past, it's not the same (in EMS) today," Bodley said. "But I will tell these girls to stand their ground. You don't have to take 'no' for an answer."

Many of the speakers who came to the event were female - even though the Z-Club coordinators didn't make that a requirement. Some speakers, like Cole County EMT Samantha Craft and paramedic Katy Rarick, spoke last year and asked to represent again this year.

"The girls really connected with them. They said some others volunteered to do it, and they stepped in and said 'I want to come back,'" Huckstep laughed. "Everybody's a role model - but especially when you have women there in nontraditional positions."

There was also male representation at Saturday's event. Owen Hart, a seventh-grader at Trinity Lutheran Church and School, said he came after a friend asked if he wanted to join.

"We're learning very interesting things, some things that are very necessary for women to know," Hart said after the self- defense session. "I feel it's important for women to protect themselves and know that everything that's happening in their life isn't wrong. They should feel empowered and OK to be themselves."

Madalynn Berkey, a Helias Catholic High School senior and president of Z-Club, enjoyed the balance of the breakout sessions - women could learn a variety of skills, as opposed to only skills often associated solely with women.

"I think that embracing your femininity is a very great thing to do - and being appreciative of yourself as both a person and a woman and being proud of that," Berkey said. "Oftentimes, clubs for girls aren't geared toward (self defense or outdoor skills). I feel like this is a cool opportunity because being a woman doesn't limit your interests."

Huckstep hopes the event will continue in the years to come, especially as they expand their partnerships - this year, 10 organizations donated resources and two partners, Central Missouri Stop Human Trafficking Coalition and Lincoln University, helped with the event.

"It's been teaching the next generation about community service and working together; it's been great," she said.