Celebrating our organization's past with our community's present
At our January membership meeting, we proudly joined Zonta Clubs all over the world in celebrating one of our most famous members – Amelia Earhart. Zonta International has honored Amelia Earhart's memory since 1938 by awarding 1,403 Amelia Earhart Fellowships totaling $8.3 million to nearly 1,000 women from 68 countries. We held our annual remembrance of Amelia Earhart at Brio Restaurant in Pembroke Pines.
This year's guest speaker was Ms. Kimberly Wood, a Captain for JetBlue Airways. An Airbus 320 professional pilot for 23 years and South Florida native, Ms. Wood began her flying career at the North Perry Airport. Although she earned college degrees from Broward Community College and the Florida Institute of Technology (FIT), Ms. Wood never thought she could be a pilot. She recalled driving up to FIT believing that she was going to be kicked out because she couldn't afford. But somehow Ms. Wood scraped together enough scholarships and loans to graduate.
Ms. Wood is one of the only 4.6% total pilots that are women. But she is part of the changing landscape; 14.2% of student pilots as of 2020 are women. Ms. Wood is contributing to this change in her role as a pilot instructor, which she has been doing for over a decade. And she has worked for numerous airlines, including American Eagle, Atlantic Coast Airways, Ryan Airways, SkyBus, Great Lakes, JetBlue. To date, she has flown to 45 states and 22 countries, logging over 14,000 flight hours. If that is not enough, Ms. Wood has maintained an active and thriving personal life. A third degree black belt (GoJu Karate), and open water rated diver, Ms. Wood still prioritizes her marriage and two daughters (one who is considering being a pilot).
The ZCML salutes Ms. Kimberly Wood for continuing the path laid by Amelia Earhart!
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