{"id":774,"date":"2023-04-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=774"},"modified":"2023-04-03T06:49:01","modified_gmt":"2023-04-03T06:49:01","slug":"camp-zama-community-holds-weeklong-celebration-to-honor-support-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=774","title":{"rendered":"Camp Zama community holds weeklong celebration to honor, support women"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n Community members attend a luncheon in honor of Women’s History Month at the Camp Zama Community Club, Japan, March 30, 2023. The Camp Zama community celebrated the observance with a week of various events to highlight and empower women on the installation.
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\n Fourteen community members received certificates of appreciation for their contributions and support to women during a Women’s History Month luncheon at the Camp Zama Community Club, Japan, March 30, 2023. The Camp Zama community celebrated the observance with a week of various events to highlight and empower women on the installation.
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\n Phillip Owens, right, chief of staff of U.S. Army Japan, speaks with Zama City Mayor Mito Sato, left, during a Women’s History Month luncheon at the Camp Zama Community Club, Japan, March 30, 2023. The Camp Zama community celebrated the observance with a week of various events to highlight and empower women on the installation.
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CAMP ZAMA, Japan \u2013 The Camp Zama community celebrated Women\u2019s History Month with a variety of events last week to highlight and empower women on the installation.<\/p>\n

The weeklong celebration, which was a broader effort than in recent years, featured a luncheon, job and volunteer fair, as well as creative and fun activities to bring the community closer.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, 14 community members were awarded certificates of appreciation during the luncheon to recognize their contributions and support to women.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs women, we empower and encourage each other almost every hour of every day,\u201d Terry Owens, lead organizer, told attendees. \u201cAs I look across this room today, I see sources of inspiration that are the embodiment of strength, character and determination.\u201d<\/p>\n

Owens then introduced each of the awardees and spoke of their recent accomplishments.<\/p>\n

Among them, Bryanna Nelson, spouse of a 311th Military Intelligence Battalion officer, showed her altruistic nature by volunteering for multiple organizations, including as president of the Zama\u00a0Community\u00a0Spouses Association, Owens said.<\/p>\n

Nelson spearheaded the Zama Culture Club, which had more than 10 off-post outings for members to experience Japanese culture, Owens said, adding she also provided emotional support and necessary resources to help a family in crisis.<\/p>\n

Nelson said she was honored to receive the award, and for the privilege to be around other women she called \u201cpowerhouses\u201d in the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a gathering of the strongest women of Zama who really keep Zama going,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Noriko Muroi, who works in U.S. Army Japan\u2019s G-6 office, was also honored for stepping up to help her short-handed office tackle questions and requests.<\/p>\n

Muroi, who originally joined the office as an administrative specialist, took it upon herself to learn information technology skills and become a program analyst to better serve its customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has taken the initiative to continuously learn new skills and her attitude is always wanting to improve and never fearing change,\u201d Owens said. \u201cShe is the symbol of a strong woman.\u201d<\/p>\n

Muroi said she was surprised about receiving an award for her work. To her, she was only doing what she had to do to assist her team.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of my supervisors told me that \u2018teamwork makes the dream work,\u2019 so I just played my part,” she said, adding her team members also helped her improve her skills.<\/p>\n

Madeeha Mehmood, chief of USARJ\u2019s Political-Military Division, provided remarks during the luncheon as the guest speaker.<\/p>\n

She described herself as a \u201cprofessional trouble maker\u201d who aims to push people to dare more and challenge the status quo mindset in the workplace.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m the person who is looking at other people and saying, \u2018we need to fix this,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cI want to leave this world better than we found it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mehmood, spouse of a naval officer, told the women in the audience to not be silent and learn to be comfortable saying the difficult things.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn Women’s History Month, I am giving this speech to a room full of accomplished women,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd it’s not lost on me that I am only here because of women before me who also spoke up, who also chose to be the disturbance. I encourage you all to do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n Terry Owens, center, leads a meditation and yoga session at the Camp Zama Youth Center gym as part of a Women’s History Month celebration at Camp Zama, Japan, March 27, 2023. The Camp Zama community celebrated the observance with a week of various events to highlight and empower women on the installation.
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\n Community members participate in a \u201ccookies and canvas\u201d event at the Arts and Crafts Center as part of a Women’s History Month celebration at Camp Zama, Japan, March 28, 2023. The Camp Zama community celebrated the observance with a week of various events to highlight and empower women on the installation.
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At the start of the celebratory week, Owens led a meditation and yoga session at the Camp Zama Youth Center gym that had several women participate.<\/p>\n

“This was our way of saying, \u2018let’s get our minds right for this week,\u2019\u201d said Lucinda Ward, an Army Community Service specialist who also helped organize the events.<\/p>\n

A \u201ccookies and canvas\u201d event took place Tuesday at the Arts and Crafts Center here to get children involved and channel everyone\u2019s creativity, Ward said.<\/p>\n

As the military moving season ramps up, organizers also decided to hold a job and volunteer fair Wednesday at the Community Club here with more than 10 organizations, including Japanese companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey’re not always aware of the opportunities that are here locally,\u201d Owens said of community members, particularly military spouses, \u201cso we thought this was a good way to get people engaged in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

A modeling fair was then held Friday at the Community Club, which allowed military youth and adults to speak with local modeling companies on the prospects of being featured in advertisements.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just believe this is one of those epic weeks for Camp Zama, because it’s never been done before,\u201d Ward said about the activities, which also included a planned karaoke night and \u201890s party.<\/p>\n

Through these activities and interacting with fellow community members, Owens hoped that women would feel more empowered to take the initiative to influence organizations and inspire others.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure that our young ladies know, as well as our women know, that there is a seat at the table for you,\u201d she said. \u201cThere always will be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related links:<\/strong><\/p>\n

U.S. Army Garrison Japan news<\/a><\/p>\n

USAG Japan official website<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 \/ 3 Show Caption + Hide Caption \u2013 Community members attend a luncheon in honor of Women’s History Month at the Camp Zama Community Club, Japan, March 30, 2023. The Camp Zama community celebrated the observance with a week of various events to highlight and empower women on the installation. (Photo Credit: Beryl Toma) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":776,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=774"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":782,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774\/revisions\/782"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}