(Left to right): Gail Heimburger, Ellen Spaeth (District 5 Lt. Gov.), Glenda Carota (District 5 Service Committee Chair), Terri Purtee-Stein (Zonta Club of Cincinnati President), Connie Kingsbury (Zonta Club of Cincinnati President-Elect), Verna Tuttle (Director), and Marilyn Herrmann.

The members of the Zonta Club of Cincinnati, OH, USA participated in a joint candlelight vigil for victims of domestic violence on 1 October at the Hamilton County Courthouse in Cincinnati. The vigil honored and remembered women killed by their intimate partners and provided hope to survivors exposed to violence and loss.

Zonta Club of Cincinnati President Terri Purtee-Stein was in attendance and said the event was emotional for her and the members.

“It was a very emotional event, especially when a father talked about the death of his two-year old daughter at the hands of her mother (his ex-wife) and her boyfriend who had shaken her to death.”

Wooden silhouettes of women with their names, dates of their death, and circumstances of their deaths – several of whom were pregnant at the time of their death and were depicted as such in the silhouette – were displayed. There were also wreaths with ribbons for each woman who died, as well as flags strung among the trees. Ninety women who died at the hands of their domestic partner in the past year in the greater Cincinnati area were represented.