MANCHESTER – Residents Club President Kathy Casper recently welcomed those who assembled for the club’s latest meeting at the Crestwood Village VI clubhouse. She noted the theme of the meeting was to observe Women’s History Month with a special guest from the community.
“As recently as 1970, women’s history wasn’t really part of anything. We kind of got shoved behind everybody, so it was an unknown topic in schools. They really didn’t promote anything or talk about anything that women did,” Casper said.
She added, “in 1978, there was a group in California that initiated a force to start Women’s Week. They wanted to follow through with international Women’s Day which is March 8th. They started with Women’s Week and in 1980, President (Jimmy) Carter followed through with what California did and he said nationwide that we will be promoting Women’s (History/Heritage) Week.”
“In 1987, President (Ronald) Reagan decided we needed Women’s Month because there were too many women who had gone above and beyond. We have astronauts, engineers – we have everything – and for the most part women were not acknowledged so he started to make it with a proclamation stating that we needed to have a Women’s Month in March,” Casper added.
“In appreciation of that, we have Michele Zolezi to talk to us. She is a councilwoman here in Manchester and she has other qualities and is an amazing woman,” Casper said introducing the meeting’s special guest.
Zolezi provided some background about herself that included her interests, her passion for the environment and work that has brought her into leadership roles. Her mother Karen Perry was also present for the presentation.
“I am really honored to be here,” she said. Zolezi works for the environmental division of the Earl company. “Earl does a lot of heavy highway construction and manufacturing facilities. I run the environmental division and I also work with environmental affairs for the company with heavy highway construction and commercial and residential work that we are doing. You might see our green and yellow trucks and equipment on roads in Manchester and throughout Ocean County.”
She added, “it is great that we have such a good community here and we have so many wonderful women doing so many wonderful things. We also have many great men who are behind the scenes or have done wonderful things too.”
Zolezi was featured in a magazine about empowering women “and mentoring women in industry – being a female executive in a male dominated industry. Last week I moderated a panel with regard to that and the importance of helping other women because it always takes a village in every capacity in business as well as in life and family.”
“I think it is important to remember where you come from. Once you start to climb that ladder as a professional woman it is always about handing your hand down and helping other women. One of the huge impacts I’ve had is about giving back,” Zolezi said.
She said that while she is a member of the Township Council which currently has three women on the five-member panel, “it’s not about politics it’s about public service. I am always here if there is anything that you need. I speak with the schools and also work with our Environmental Commission.”
“I would like to hear from you, too, because I think it is really important that we work together. There is an organization called Commerce and Industry and they had an event that I was moderator and speaker at and one of the speakers was the CEO of the New Jersey Division of the Girl Scouts. We spoke about how we can empower younger women on taking on roles of leadership positions and breaking boundaries and pushing the envelope,” the councilwoman added.
Zolezi noted, “there were very few women in the industry when I first started but there are a lot more women now in the environmental construction portion of it. It has definitely come a long way.”
The councilwoman was asked a few questions about what she does at work and her role on council from the audience. She urged residents to come out to the Town Council meetings and learn more about the process and what was happening. “It really is important for our residents to get involved.”
Judy Noonan who serves as senior liaison with the township’s senior services office and is a confidential aide to the mayor noted that women of her generation helped to pave the way for ladies “like Michele, we’ve gone to businesses where we had to face discrimination as women.”
“I’m very proud of Michele. I can see going up in the business world, women had a hard time. I’m sure we all faced it one way or another. Men didn’t want to deal with us and that is why it is very important to help pave the way. I always say a pretty face isn’t going to do it. Women have had to work a little harder to get where we got,” Noonan added.
