Zonta honors Yellow Rose recipients

Compiled by Zonta Club of Grand Island

Photo by Alice Gerard

The Zonta Club of Grand Island selected three outstanding women to receive the 2026 Yellow Rose award for leadership and service to the community. The club honors women whose talent, dedication, determination and caring hearts have made a difference in the lives of others and inspired a new generation to achieve to their greatest potential.

The Yellow Rose ceremony was held March 8, which is International Women’s Day, at the Buffalo Launch Club. The 2026 recipients are Kelly Gast, Sharon Long Nichols, and Mary Stang-Cooke. These Islanders come from various professions, including nonprofit, business and government.

Kelly Gast

Community outreach manager at Family Justice Center (FJC) of Erie County

Gast is a lifelong resident of Grand Island. She was educated at Nichols School, and she completed her bachelor's degree in communications at SUNY at Buffalo. In 2015, she launched the first digital-only newspaper for Grand Island. Her video reports covered the town workshops and board meetings, bringing transparency to the town government. Around this time, Gast started volunteering at the Family Justice Center. She used her news platform to provide awareness of domestic violence.

Gast was hired by the FJC in 2022, where she uses her personal experience to engage, connect and bring resources to the community. One of the highlights of her career was creating and establishing the Mark A. Monaco Hope Shop, which gives victims of domestic violence the opportunity to shop for free for themselves and their children. It allows FJC clients to leave with more dignity than they come in with. It also provides a return of self-worth from those from which it was stolen.

"My mission as community outreach manager is to build trust, awareness and access to safety through consistent, compassionate connection,” Gast said. “I work to strengthen our community through education, partnerships and survivor-centered outreach knowing that, little by little, a little becomes a lot.”

Sharon Long Nichols

Founding member of Grand Island Historical Society, retired business manager

Nichols moved to Ferry Village in 1969. She went to Williamsville High School and attended Akron University. Following her years as a homemaker and mother, she managed the jewelry department at Ames on Grand Island. She then worked at GIBCO/Thermo Fisher Scientific. After her retirement, Nichols and her sister managed the hot dog stand in Ferry Village, reviving a tradition that carries on to this day.

 “I appreciated the challenges each job provided. I mostly enjoyed the people I worked with,” Nichols said.

Additionally, she was a founding member of the Grand Island Historical Society, which was established in 1962. The Historical Society’s museum is at River Lea, an historic building that the group worked to save from demolition. Nichols has been a member of many committees, as well as serving as the Historical Society’s president and as treasurer.

Another building Nichols worked to save was Historic Trinity. For 16 years, she has been active on the board of trustees for Trinity Church. In the early 1990s, it was decided that Historic Trinity Church was no longer needed. A committee was formed to save the historic site. Petitions were signed and the Methodist Church reversed its decision to tear down the building. Historic Trinity continues to have purposeful use in its second life. It is now the home of Step in Time dance school.

For the past eight years, Nichols has been a member of the Grand Island Garden Walk committee, a nonprofit group highlighting beautiful Island gardens. Since 2006, Nichols has also served as a member of the Historic Preservation Advisory Board for the Town of Grand Island.

"Island history and preservation has always interested me and continues to fill my days," Nichols said.

Mary Stang-Cooke

Former Grand Island Town supervisor, councilperson and teacher, retired

Cooke has been a proud Grand Island resident for 38 years. She holds a master's degree in foundations in teaching and a bachelor’s degree in home economics from SUNY Buffalo State (now Buffalo State University). She worked as a home economics/home and career skills/family and consumer science (FACS) teacher. She also served as a Grand Island town councilwoman and then as the Grand Island town supervisor for four years.

Cooke was awarded the Lifetime Member Award from the Wilson Central School PTA, WNY Home Economics Teacher of the Year, and Grand Island Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year for Government. Since retirement, Cooke was awarded the Sons of Union Veterans of The Civil War commendation certificate and the Lions International Melvin Jones Fellow Award.

She has volunteered for numerous organizations on Grand Island, including president of the Friends of Grand Island Memorial Library, corresponding secretary for the Grand Island Historical Society, District 12 committeeperson for the Grand Island Republican Committee and lector at St. Stephen Roman Catholic Church. She has also been part of the church’s funeral planning, children’s liturgy and bereavement meal committee. Cooke is currently a member of the town’s Historic Preservation Advisory Board. In addition, she serves as liaison to the Erie County Correctional Facility for flowers and for Christmas wreaths.

Cooke enjoys meeting and working with so many great people, learning so many new things, and establishing lifelong friendships. The challenges she works to resolve include balancing needs within budgets and equally applying the law, codes and policies. Her personal mission is, “To move forward each day by learning something new, helping someone, improving a situation or contributing to the community."

Zonta is an international service organization whose members work to build a better world for women and girls. For Zonta women worldwide, March 8 is not only International Women’s Day, it is also Zonta Yellow Rose Day. March 8 was designated Yellow Rose Day by Zonta International in 1999 to celebrate women’s achievements through the beauty of presenting a single yellow rose.

On this day, women’s achievements are celebrated in countries all over the world, while also acknowledging women’s ongoing quest for gender equality. In many countries, this day is also a national holiday.

Join us! The Zonta Club of Grand Island is currently holding a membership drive. For more information, contact membership chair Donna Monaco at dmonacozonta@gmail.com or 716-775-2538. The club’s websites are www.facebook.com/zontaclubofgrandisland and zontagrandisland.org. The mailing address is PO Box 1104, Grand Island, NY 14072.