Zonta chooses Community Legal Aid for its 2022 Founders Day award

Western MA ~ In November of each year, the Zonta Club of Quaboag Valley celebrates its Founders Day by giving an award to someone in the community who exemplifies the ideals of Zonta International. For its last Founders Day award In 2019 – Zonta’s 100^th birthday – Dr. Mary-Beth A. Cooper, President of Springfield College, was celebrated for her leadership and her support for the advancement of women and the values of Zonta.

After a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the club wanted to come back strong by recognizing an honoree who is also a proponent of Zonta’s primary focus in its work with the United Nations: Sustainable Development Goal No. 5 – to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls by 2030 (UN.org).  After careful deliberation, the local Zonta club has chosen an organization as opposed to an individual for the first time.

The 2022 Zonta Founders Day Award will go to Community Legal Aid, Inc. (CLA) – a non-profit organization that provides free legal services to over 7,000 low-income and elderly clients a year across the five counties of Central and Western Massachusetts, impacting an estimated 18,000 of the region’s most vulnerable residents – most of them women and heads of households. CLA works to assure fairness for all in the justice system in housing & homelessness; employment & government benefits; family law & domestic abuse, elder law; veteran services, education law and more.

Cynthia Melcher, Vice President of the Zonta Club of Quaboag Valley and Executive Director of the World Affairs Council of Western Massachusetts, explains why she nominated Community Legal Aid for this honor, “”The work of Community Legal Aid, assisting marginalized people–particularly women and children–embodies the principles we try to live by as Zontians.  We advocate for justice; they actually deliver it.”

The public is invited to join us in learning about and celebrating Community Legal Aid, Inc. on Monday, November 14^th starting at 5:30 with a reception and dinner at the Ludlow Country Club, Ludlow MA.

Please RSVP by November 6^th either:

(1) Online – Click here to register or make a donation
(2) Send a check ($30/pp) with names of all attendees to Zonta of Quaboag Valley, PO Box 1034, Belchertown MA 01007-1034, or
(3) Email info@zontaqv.org with names of all attendees and pay $30/pp at the door – cash, check or credit card. (Note: Specify any dietary restrictions by emailing name/details to info@zontaqv.org.)

If you or your organization would like to be a sponsor of this event, please contact Cynthia Melcher or Mary Knight at info@zontaqv.org. Funds will be used to reduce the cost of dinner for CLA guests and supporters who are unable to pay full price.

Do you want to make the world a better place by working toward gender equality? Zonta International and our members work at the international, national and local levels to realize our vision of a world in which women’s rights are recognized as human rights and every woman is able to achieve her full potential, where women have access to all resources and are represented in decision-making positions on an equal basis with men, and where no woman lives in fear of violence. Join us in building a better world for women and girls.