Making time to honor women who do
it all
Staten Island Advance
Monday, March 29, 2004
They aren't ladies who lunch. They're ladies who
power lunch.
Some of the borough's busiest businesswomen took a
break from their Palm pilots and conference calls yesterday to honor
four women at the second annual Award of Distinction Brunch
sponsored by the Staten Island Chapter of the Business and
Professional Women's Club.
"We honor these women because they represent women
in 2004," said Robyn Zappola, the group's second vice president,
during the event in the Island Chateau in Grasmere. "They try to
balance friends, family, work and community involvement."
"I don't, actually," said honoree Laura Jean
Watters, executive director of the Council on the Arts and
Humanities for Staten Island, when asked how she juggles her life
and her work. "You really can't have it all; what you have to do is
make your choices. [You have to have] skill to politely and firmly
say 'no' to things that might be nice and good but are not
important."
 Honored
along with Ms. Watters were Clo Garguilo, president of the Staten
Island Council of Animal Welfare; Dr. Marlene Springer, president of
the College of Staten Island, and Lilian Popp, president of the
Coalition of Staten Island Women's Organizations.
About 100 women attended the brunch, including
former state Assemblywoman Elizabeth Connelly, who remembered when
it wasn't so easy for such women to gain distinction.
She noted that when she arrived in the Legislature
only four of 150 seats were occupied by women.
"When we started to get more women, you began to see
a change in focus; child care, health care became big issues -- it
made a major difference," she said.
"Our families all deserve medals," said Ms. Garguilo,
whose animal welfare group is not-for-profit. Her husband piped
right in with a firm affirmation.
"She's going straight to heaven," he said of his
wife. "If [the Council] was a business we'd be millionaires."
Dr. Springer gets a whole different type of family
support. She once asked her daughter if her long working hours were
a problem.
Her daughter replied, "Mom, if you brought all that
energy home you would drive us crazy."
by Melissa Anelli
Reprinted here with permission from the
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