The Zonta Club of Northampton Area is determined to round out its first century. We are in a time of acknowledging historical markers of endurance and fulfilling accomplishment – all within the context of our US 250! After celebrating and re-remembering our club’s 90 years of local service and global involvement as we Zontians strive to make a better world for women and girls, we are inspired not only to keep the torch lit, but to keep it glowing right here in the Pioneer Valley.
Membership:
Recent years have found our ranks holding firm at 11 members, but with numbers low and bodies aging, sometimes we’ve questioned our resources. But we had amazed ourselves back in 2023 by producing a “Zonta Palooza” to honor our Lynn Goodhue with not only a great party but a sizeable reward – raising more than $6,000 on a festive Sunday afternoon. We knew that we could rally our energy and put on a good show again. And so, after weeks of planning and reaching out to our communities, on March 9, 2025, we celebrated our own 90th birthday! Many friends and Zonta fans joined us to honor 9 women in the Northampton area whose lives have made so many other lives immeasurably better. We showed off our club’s history of many service projects through the decades and brought the selected honorees together to be celebrated. We were gratified that virtually all of the expenses of our birthday party were covered by donations – and just to add ice cream to the cake, our club gave each of our nine honorees $250 to donate to their own favorite organizations.
We feel that the outcome of the two events mentioned – one prior to this biennium, one during – has been a wider knowledge of and appreciation for the Zonta presence in our Valley. We have added two new members, Laurie Messer and Gina Rotas, both of whom have become very active participants with wonderful ideas. Also, our hearts have been warmed by the return of longtime member Lexie Johnson, who had left to dedicate herself to her mother’s last years – and who has not only rejoined, but accepted the role of Co-President for the coming Biennium. We are excited at the prospect of relating to women’s causes exploding with need around us – and are making plans to connect with all the energy out there, just waiting for an opportunity to get to work. At the same time, we are holding close one of our dear stalwart members who has been such an impressive leader and role model to us all: Jayma Hall is withdrawing to spend time with her family and dear ones as she faces serious illness. This is a hard loss, but she continues to inspire us with her courage and dignity. She is one of us forever.
Scholarship:
We are very grateful for the outcome of our 1st Lynn Goodhue STEM Scholarship award, for which we raised the Zonta Palooza funds. Our award, we decided, would be $3,000 for the first winner, which would save the remaining $3,000 for another year. Our aim is to continue to raise money for this award, and to keep it going with perpetuity. We made sure that our award fit the criteria for the Zonta International Stem Scholarship, so that our winner could to further possible recognition… and publicized the competition through our many area college channels. We had several very impressive applicants, and selected Baran Zibaei from Iran, studying for her PhD at Western New England University, as our winner. She was moved and very appreciative of our award, and we enjoyed a lovely meeting on February 19, 2026, with several friends, family and guests in attendance. Her very moving acceptance speech is attached to this report.
Service:
Our club has joined with the Quabog Valley Club to assist with the Period Project, helping to raise money and bring in contributions of personal products as well as gathering to assemble the packets for area homeless shelters and service outlets where women can access them. We enjoyed a wonderful presentation last fall from Stacia Hallisey, the young founder of Midwifery Exchange in Ghana, Inc., and are actively working with her to raise funds. Also, new member Gina Rotas brought her daughter Kristin in to tell us about her ground-breaking work with a very well-organized grant to assist single mothers in the Springfield area, assessing their needs and finding ways to successfully overcome obstacles to not only parent their children but to plan their own future. We hope to learn more about their conclusions and participate in effective service to that community. One of our annual fundraising projects is selling poinsettias, and member Joanne Vye coordinates the delivery of the beautiful plants to certain residents who she knows enjoy holiday visits. Additionally, our club always participates in the December “Hot Chocolate Run,” an extremely popular and successful fundraiser for the organization Safe Passage that focuses on women leaving abusive relationships. We walk the 5K as the “Zonta Zooms!”
Advocacy:
Following our becoming acquainted in the last biennial with MA state representative Mindy Domb, we have enjoyed staying in touch with her office for several matters. Along with most of the civilized world, we have been horrified at the revelations of the Epstein network; and in our own Berkshire neighborhood, we learned that a trusted male teacher in a private girls’ boarding school has been exposed for having groomed and sexually exploited students over many years. We have initiated calls and letters to our state reps, urging MA to raise the “age of consent” to 18 from its present 16, which the teacher very clearly understood. The state has responded with some conditional parameters regarding influential adults, but most of us are not satisfied and will continue to advocate for better rules. As the biennial concludes, we have just begun to gather signatures for the ERA passage – a task that will continue until that finish line is crossed!
Looking ahead, we are determined to carefully focus our small but mighty club on a few carefully chosen causes; to reach out and help to coordinate service efforts with sister orgs; to make the name ZONTA known and respected everywhere. We build on our experience – the hard work and effective leadership of this biennial is precious inspiration as we move to the next one. Go Zonta!
Respectfully submitted,
Judith Luddy, Secretary
Donna Sroka, Co-President
Audrey Millgate, Co-President
Baran’s inspirational acceptance speech in printed 
The Zonta Club of Northampton invites you to join us at next meeting, Thursday, October 16 at 6:30 to meet Stacia Hallisey from the Midwifery Exchange in Ghana who will be our speaker. They work with birth workers in rural areas in Ghana and have recently coordinated efforts in Liberia. They focus on continuing education for midwives and have been active in Ghana since 2019. Here is their website for more information: 
