Peconic Bay member Annika Shapiro (center left; also pictured, from left: Diane Greenberg, Diane Loffredo, Liala Strotman and Linda Rundlett) hosted our December business meeting at her home. It was a special evening for the holiday season, with a Lucia Swedish dinner prepared by Annika, who grew up in Helsingborg, Sweden.
She described Swedish traditions and life in Sweden, where parents are entitled to 480 days of paid parental leave when a child is born or adopted, with parents entitled to nearly 80 per cent of their normal pay for 390 of those days. (For more information on family-friendly Sweden, click here.) Mindful of Zonta’s mission of empowering women and girls through service and advocacy, Annika also spoke on a personal level of the respect for women and their partnership with men in her home country.
Annika came to New York in 1964 as a stewardess with Pan Am (Pan American Airways) and has now lived in the US for 52 years! She joined Peconic Bay Zonta in 2016. “I have always wanted to have an opportunity to 'give back' to girls and women who are less fortunate than I am. I believe that being a member of Zonta will give me this opportunity both on a local as well as an international level,” she explained.
The 66 Zonta clubs in Sweden along with the five clubs in Latvia make up Zonta International District 21.
Dinner was glögg (a traditional drink in December), smörgås tårta (the shrimp/egg/caviar dish pictured) as a main course, and lingonberry parfait with meringues for dessert. – Photos by Linda Rundlett
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