I continued my own personal growth through my affiliation with the United Way. At this point in my Zonta life, I was mainly involved at the local level and had not experienced a volunteer Board working with executive directors and paid staff. The United Way taught me about that very important component in community organizations. 

While serving on the United Way Board, I was asked to chair the Admission Committee, serve on the Allocations Committee, and sit as Board liaison to United Way Agencies. Two of the agencies for whom I acted as liaison were Volunteer Victoria, http://www.volunteervictoria.bc.ca, and Victoria Family Abuse Prevention Society, http://www.familyviolence.ca/splash.htm.

The Admission Committee afforded me an opportunity to interview agencies seeking admission to the United Way of Victoria, learn about the organization, understand the funding, examine financial statements, meet the executive Directors, and review the role of the volunteer component of the association.

The Allocations Committee offered me the possibility to see the distribution of the community dollars raised by the United Way put to use in our area. As liaison to Volunteer Victoria, I saw how an organization was created solely to seek and train volunteers to serve other volunteer organizations. It taught me it was important to seek volunteers from all age groups, especially our seniors.

But to me, the greatest lesson I learned as a United Way Volunteer was the difference the Victoria Family Abuse Prevention Society could make in our community.

The program that affected me the most was the Family Violence Project. The program is for men who have been abusive and women who have been in an abusive relationship. Through counselling, the abuse pattern is stopped, thereby affording the next generation an opportunity to pursue a life free of abuse. To me, this was also one of the most important goals of Zonta International, as well. The two organizations, in my estimation, were closely linked and had common goals that were important to me.

By the mid ‘90s, I was at the international level of Zonta, working at headquarters in Chicago. There my understanding expanded to include comprehension of the interaction between the service club side of Zonta and the Zonta Foundation. This knowledge and experience I was able to use to further enhance my ability to serve our Society and Foundation.

In 1998, my two-year term as a Director for Zonta International was complete; I remain on the international level, serving a two-year term as Chair of Public Relations.

My life as a volunteer has afforded me education, opportunities, personal growth, and a world of fun and friends. I look forward to the rest of my life, a time to go back to the beginning and volunteer in my grandchildren’s lives. I’m now going to be the very best grandmother that I can be.

I have been very fortunate in what I have been able to do in my volunteer life and extremely grateful in the opportunities it has afforded me.

I have come full circle.

Leta Best
Notary Public
#100-895 Fort Street
Victoria, BC  V8W 1H7