NORTHAMPTON — The Northampton Chapter of Zonta International, an organization dedicated to women’s empowerment across the globe, will host a “Zonta Palooza” event Sunday evening, honoring the longtime legacy of a longtime member with deep ties to Smith College.

The event is a fundraiser to raise money for a scholarship to support college-age women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields. The event and scholarship is dedicated to the memory of Lynn Goodhue, the former director of the computer center at Smith College and an alumna of the college. Goodhue lived in Williamsburg and was also a longtime member of the Northampton chapter of Zonta International before her death last year.

Judith Luddy, who currently serves as secretary for the Northampton Zonta chapter, said Goodhue served on the international board of the organization, which is active in over 1,000 clubs across 62 countries, and used those connections to travel around the world in support of women’s rights.

“She [Goodhue] once was going to an international board meeting, which happened to be in Hawaii,” Luddy recalled. “She decided to go west by going east, starting in Europe and going around the world, staying with Zonta members and friends until she got back around to Hawaii.”

Sunday’s event begins at 4 p.m. at the Northampton Center for the Arts, 33 Hawley St. It will feature musical acts from local artists Blackbird & Applegate, Louise Mosire Coombe and The O-Tones Trio. The event will be emceed by Judith Fine, the former president of the Northampton Chamber of Commerce and a former city councilor for Northampton.

Tickets for the event are $20, which goes toward the scholarship fund. An online auction for various handcrafted donations, such as a quilt and a peyote-stitched beaded bracelet, will also support the scholarship.

The scholarship will be awarded to a woman living in or attending college in the Pioneer Valley, who has completed at least two years of undergraduate study and is majoring in a STEM field.

“We had been doing [scholarships] with women in business, but one of the things we found is that women in STEM is definitely needed,” said Donna Sroka, who serves as president of Zonta’s District One, which includes all chapters in New England and in Nova Scotia. “We wanted to have Lynn Goodhue locally acknowledged, and what she’s done in STEM and done for the club.”

Founded in 1919 in Buffalo, New York, Zonta International was founded as a place where career working women could get together and support each other during a time when many were the only women in their own workplace. It has since spread to chapters across every continent, and participates in United Nations conferences dealing with women’s rights. The name “Zonta” comes from a Lakota word meaning honest or trustworthy.

Famous former members of Zonta include the pioneering pilot Amelia Earhart, who was active in the Boston and New York chapters of Zonta. The organization has also sponsored a fellowship named after Earhart to support women in aerospace-related fields.

The Northampton chapter of Zonta meets every third Thursday of the month. Membership is open to everyone, regardless of sex or gender.

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.

]]>