Powerful in Pink

The ballroom was bursting with pink for today’s ZTA Foundation lunch! To kick things off, the Fraternity presented two Silver Awards for excellence in service.

Anne Winnes Redmond Service Awards

These Silver Awards recognize collegiate chapters for service efforts.

Mighty/Mighty-Mighty: Theta Sigma, Winthrop University

Majority: Alpha, Longwood University

Mega: Zeta, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Alumnae Service Award

These Silver Awards recognize alumnae organizations that have made the most outstanding contributions in the area of service.

Small: North Shore, IL Chapter

Medium: Cypress, TX Chapter

Large: Cobb County, GA Chapter

Next, Foundation President Carolyn Hof Carpenter set the tone for the rest of the program: “As a sisterhood, we’ve been thinking pink for over three decades now. Over that time, a few things have become abundantly clear to me—we aren’t just pretty in pink. We are also purposeful in pink. We are passionate in pink. But most of all, we are Powerful in Pink.”

Carolyn invited everyone who has been impacted by the work of the Foundation to stand up. That included past and present scholarship recipients, women who have passed out pink ribbons at an NFL game or celebrated Survivors and Thrivers at a Making Strides Against Breast Cancer^® walk, collegians who have participated in a My Sister, My Responsibility^® workshop or leadership academy, and anyone who has been part of a Day of Giving. The entire room was standing! It was incredible to see just how many different people are touched by the ZTA Foundation. Foundation Vice President of Scholarship Kristen Humeston Harthorn shared scholarship wins from the biennium. The ZTA Foundation awarded nearly $3 million in scholarships over the past two years! An incredible 102 scholarship recipients for the 2026-2027 school year were in attendance and stood to be recognized.

Next, Foundation Vice President of Philanthropy Marlene Dunbar Conrad spoke about the research we fund with the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and introduced two BCRF employees in attendance, Christine Ward and Sadia H. Zapp, who will be our Special Initiates on Saturday (more on that tomorrow!). Sadia shared her personal journey with breast cancer and thanked everyone in the room for their dedication to finding a cure.

Marlene shared that the Foundation set out to fund a third research project with BCRF, but instead, the ZTA Foundation will now fund FIVE research projects! “Thanks to the extraordinary generosity and commitment of our sisterhood, we have officially pledged $2.5 million to research over the next two years.”

Continuing the celebration, Foundation Vice President of Collegiate Development Carla Martin Cobb shared some of the incredible fundraising accomplishments of our collegiate chapters over the biennium. Then, Carolyn recognized the incredible individual members of the Lifetime Giving Society and the board thanked those who reached new levels with gifts and hugs.

Finally, we celebrated the retirement of Kay Dill Kreutzer, who is retiring after an amazing 38 years on the Foundation board. The board surprised Kay with the announcement that they established the Kay Dill Kreutzer Endowed Scholarship. Thank you, Kay, for your years of dedicated service!