The Zonta Club of Ipswich is bringing awareness to violence against women with “orange ladies” appearing at 12 local businesses.

Cath Fernbach, Connie Riley, Maxine Thiele, Sue Hansen, Ann Cleghorn, Lauren Haack, Athena Murray, Joan Watson and Pam Harrison standing in front of the banner erected on Monday morning to support domestic violence awareness.(Courtesy of Whitsunday Times)

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MAXINE Thiele and the Whitsundays Zonta Club are determined to spread the message of preventing domestic violence and they know just how they are going to do it.

From May 9-23, 12 “orange ladies”, made by the Airlie Beach Men’s Shed, will be displayed in 12 businesses around Airlie.

The businesses are: the PCYC, the Coffee Club, Bright Eyes, Airllywood, Smart Arts, Giggle Kids, Fat Frog Cafe, Cherrie Baby, IDEAL Placements, Reef Gateway and Porters.

The final orange lady will be placed at the intersection of Shute Harbour and Abell roads. As advocacy director of the Whitsundays Zonta Club, Ms Thiele said the idea of the orange ladies was an initiative of the Ipswich Zonta Club.

“And orange is the colour adopted by Zonta International as the colour that represents violence,” she said.

“It doesn’t just represent domestic violence, but violence in general.”

Zonta International’s campaign “Zonta says NO to Violence against Women” will work in conjunction with May’s Prevention of Family and Domestic Violence Awareness month.

On Monday morning, a banner was erected on the hill of Shute Harbour Road above Airlie Beach to catch the attention of locals.

Ms Thiele said the more that could be done to make people aware of domestic violence, the better.

“We will also tie orange ribbons around various trees in town so we hope locals and local businesses can get involved,” she said.

“It would be great if locals could tie orange ribbons around trees in their gardens to show they support the campaign.”

The Zonta Clubs are not stopping there with an even bigger event at the end of the month.

On May 20, several Zonta Club members will take part in a “Zonta says NO” campaign at the Cowboys vs Broncos match in Townsville.

The Whitsunday club will join 70 others from district 22 of Mackay to Townsville, all dressed in orange to promote the campaign.