EVERETT — Kathleen Stratton Zunkel got an e-mail in August from a new friend in Mongolia.
She had met Battsetseg “Baagii” Shagdar while traveling last January to the Asian nation for a horseback-riding tour.
Shagdar wrote to say that she wanted to visit Everett, and Zunkel sent an e-mail back suggesting that next summer might be a good time.
No, Shagdar insisted. A delegation of Mongolian women planned to arrive in Seattle on Dec. 2, and they wanted Zunkel to arrange for them to attend a political campaign workshop run by the National Federation of Republican Women.
“I thought ‘O-kay,’” Zunkel said, drawing out the last two syllables in mock puzzlement. “But then, even though I am a Democrat, I thought, ‘OK, I’ll do it.’”
Time was a factor for Shagdar. The delegation includes members of the Democratic Women’s Union in Mongolia, where a fledgling democracy is encouraging women to run for elections in June. Some are running for town councils, while Shagdar is seeking election to Mongolia’s national parliament.
Zunkel promised Shagdar she would do her best to set up the visit, and the next day she contacted Frauna Hoglund, president of the Snohomish County Republican Women.
Hoglund, 69, of Everett was familiar with the national Republican Women’s campaign school, which prepares candidates to run for office, and she agreed to help.
Zunkel, 55, of Mukilteo, began working on details of the Mongolians’ two-week trip: arranging for host families, the use of a large van, excursions to Boeing and the state capitol in Olympia to visit representatives of both parties, and a Rotary club meeting.
“It was a strange post-election time for such a visit,” Hoglund said. “But I liked the idea and wanted to help this group of women. We made many phone calls.”
Hoglund and Zunkel put aside any political differences and focused on the project.
“Everyone was willing to volunteer to help and encourage democracy in Mongolia, and especially the women’s rights platform,” Hoglund said.
Issues such as domestic violence, jobs, educational opportunities and child care are of great importance to the women, Shagdar said during a break in her visit last week.
Though they spoke on the phone and e-mailed each other frequently, Zunkel and Hoglund didn’t meet each other until the Mongolians arrived last week.
“But I knew Frauna was my kind of lady,” Zunkel said. “We’ve worked well together because we are optimistic and dedicated to making this happen.”
Born and raised in Everett, Hoglund is a Seattle University graduate and a former chairwoman of Snohomish County Republican Party. Along with leading the local Republican Women’s club, she is president of the St. Vincent de Paul food bank at Our Lady of Perpetual Help.
“I was delighted to meet Kathleen,” Hoglund said. “We are very similar in that we like to volunteer and give to our local community and now the international community.”
Zunkel grew up in Chicago and earned a communications degree at San Francisco State University. After working in sales, she trained to become a court reporter and opened her own business in Everett. She is on the board of Cocoon House, an Everett nonprofit organization that helps homeless teenagers.
With some extra time and money on her hands last winter, Zunkel decided to make a trip to Mongolia for the horseback-riding expedition through the rugged countryside.
She decided to arrive a few days ahead of the start of the tour, and because her husband, radiologist David Zunkel, is a South Everett-Mukilteo Rotarian, she made contact with a Rotary club in Mongolia.
The club’s representative sent to meet Zunkel was Shagdar, who is fluent in English.
“Baagii and I met for dinner and became fast friends, talking about small business development, politics and women’s rights,” Zunkel said.
She learned that Shagdar, 46, also speaks Russian, has a doctorate in education administration from the University of Calcutta, runs a college in the Tov province of Mongolia and has a son who is student at Harding University in Little Rock, Ark.
Shagdar has served on city and provincial councils but lost her bid in 2000 for a seat in Mongolia’s parliament by a slim margin to a popular Communist party official. In 2008, she is expected to try again, she said.
In the meantime, Shagdar was a guest of the U.S. State Department in 2006 as part of a leadership program and has served as translator and tour leader for two other groups of Mongolian women visiting the United States.
“Now 22 Mongolian women have trained with the Republican Women’s campaign school,” Shagdar said.
Hoglund put together a daylong campaign training session Dec. 3, which included workshops by elected officials and professional campaign strategists. The women learned about fundraising, walking neighborhoods and developing campaign messages.
The next day the women visited Snohomish County Auditor Carolyn Diepenbrock, who not only talked about American elections, but also described her own recent campaign for office.
Armed with their experiences, the Mongolian women will return home Friday to train other women and prepare for the 45-day campaign period before the June elections.
“Without the efforts of Kathleen and Frauna, this would not have happened,” Shagdar said. “Kathleen is my sister and will always be my friend. Frauna knows the importance of women in politics, and the connection of our clubs will continue.”
Zunkel is trying to talk Hoglund, a busy grandmother, into a trip to Mongolia in the spring to observe the campaign and the fruits of their volunteer efforts.
Whether they go or not, both will be watching the results with great interest.
“We are of the age group where we know how fortunate we are as American women,” Zunkel said. “We want to continue to encourage the Mongolian women.”
“Their democracy is so young and what they are doing there is remarkable,” Hoglund said.
Reporter Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427 or gfiege@heraldnet.com.
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