Zonta Club of Mitchell, a small club of 9 women, combined with the local shire council, police, health services etc.

We are a Shire with a very high rate of family violence. As a club, we thought that family is supposed to be a safe and comforting environment, like a blanket, so we proposed to use yarn bombing with orange blankets to bring to the attention of the local community, the scourge that is family violence and the voice that is Zonta.

We spent several months, crocheting and knitting orange squares, rectangles etc and used our gathering times to put these together into large blankets to fit various trees in our shire. We selected prominent trees in each of the four major towns, sought permits and approval and yarn bombed at the start of the 16 days or activism.

Signs were attached that explained the role of Zonta, and that Zonta says no to violence. Zontians took part in the walk against family violence and at the conclusion of the walk, there was public address from a victim survivor of abuse and the final tree in Seymour was bombed.

Many people asked to be photographed in front of our tree. There were articles in the local newspaper, reports on local radio and social media. The yarn bombing was removed at the end of the 16 days.

Even as we were sewing the blankets around trees we had people stop and ask what was happening, asking about the role of Zonta and the 16 days of activism. There were many comments about the orange trees.

After we had removed the blankets, the shire council contacted us to ask if we would be prepared to wrap a couple of trees in the pop up family park that the shire had constructed for the Christmas and New Year period, so the message of Zonta and No to violence is still out there.

As stated, we are a very small club in a small rural community, and this event has brought the work of Zonta into the public view. We have had some welcome enquiries from women thinking of joining, and offers from others prepared to assist with our work.