Founders' Day Proclamation 2024

Zeta Tau Alpha is celebrating 126 years of sisterhood and honoring the nine young women whose vision continues to guide us today.

The tradition of the Founders’ Day Proclamation began in 1928. Bertha Cruse Gardner was the first Grand President to send greetings to the membership on Oct. 15 of that year. Today, it remains one of the great honors and privileges of the National President to reach out to all of our sisters on this day.

Founders' Day Proclamation

Convention 2024 kicked off a new biennium, and we are ready. Exciting things are happening as Zeta Tau Alpha continues to move forward. We are implementing a new volunteer structure to meet the needs of our Fraternity. We continue to support our collegiate chapters as they share our sisterhood with new members. We want to encourage our alumnae to stay connected to ZTA. We will never stop reminding alumnae and collegians alike that Zeta Is Forever!

The three Zeta Tau Alpha entities are something to be envied. The ZTA Foundation remains committed to education and lifelong learning, awarding $1.3 million in scholarships for the current academic year. We Think Pink® as shown by the Foundation’s recent $1.25 million grant to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. The ZTA Fraternity Housing Corporation creates welcoming places where sisterhood can flourish and members feel at home. While the Fraternity, Foundation and FHC each celebrate its individual success, the relationship among all three is what makes us stronger.

Even as our Founders were shaping the core values and makeup of our Fraternity, they were as optimistic and forward-thinking as we are today. In a 1910 letter, Maud Jones Horner wrote: “Yes, we had to steal up the stairs one by one, looking like convicts, instead of girls who were striving with all their might and main to establish a strong a loyal sisterhood that was destined to make its impression on the millions who are to follow its loyal teachings and principles.”

We are still developing those millions to come. Each member brings her own unique personality and perspective to our sisterhood, which reinforces our commitment to the vision of Zeta Tau Alpha and all its members.

What does our path into the future look like? In a 1971 message to our ZTA members published in Themis, Ruby Leigh Orgain nailed it. “When Alice in Wonderland asked which way she ought to walk from here, she was told that it depended a great deal on where she wanted to get to. So, as Zetas, we want to keep a sense of direction and the meaning of true values in our everyday behavior—not only for ourselves, but for those whose lives we touch with influence.”

Given under my hand and seal, I proclaim the fifteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord two thousand and twenty-four, as our 126th Founders’ Day.

Dinah Jackson Laughery
National President

Austin, Texas
October 2024