Starting Tuesday, Zonta Club of Wyoming Bighorns will join the international organization’s more than 1,100 clubs for a campaign to raise awareness of violence against women.

Zonta International was first founded as an organization more than a century ago, aiming to improve living conditions for women and girls. Now, it has more than 1,100 clubs in 64 countries.

Zonta began participating in an international campaign, 16 Days of Activism, with its own version, Zonta says NO to Violence Against Women Days, in 2012. Local Zonta Service Projects Chair Yvonne Gatley said this is the second year the local club is participating in the campaign.

“The whole idea is to spread the awareness, the communication, of the predominance of violence against women throughout the world,” Gatley said.

Gatley said Sheridan is no exception from that predominance, adding the local group works to connect survivors to resources in the community, like the Advocacy and Resource Center. From Sept. 1, 2024, through September this year, Advocacy and Resource Center Executive Director Yvonne Swanson said the center assisted 456 people in Sheridan, 357 of whom were female.

The local Zonta club has worked to grow its own campaign. Last year, members wrapped a tree in orange ribbons — which Gatley said signals support and resilience — ran a public service announcement on radio stations and placed ads in the Country Bounty, a weekly shopper each Sheridanite receives in their mailbox. This year, it has kept each of those and is adding social media posts for each day of the campaign, delivering coasters to bars and putting 12 small, orange, 3D printed ladies with information cards in downtown businesses.

Among those businesses is Verdello. Owner Jenny Boedecker said she still needs to find the perfect location for the 3D printed orange lady.

“(It is) obviously a great cause that we all should be behind and supporting,” Boedecker said. “We all have a mother, a sister, a daughter, somebody in our life that’s a female and probably more likely than not known someone that’s been affected by abuse at some point.”

Sheridan Mayor Rich Bridger signed a proclamation earlier this week, declaring Nov. 25 to Dec. 10 as the 16 Days of Activism and as Zonta says NO to Violence Against Women Days.

Sheridanites who may want to get involved in the campaign or with Zonta should email zontawyomingbighorns@gmail.com or see the organization’s Facebook page. Gatley said the organization is largely aimed toward women, but men are also encouraged to participate.

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