READY TO RESPOND

By Patti Cords Levitte, Archivist, and Susan L. Beard, Archives Committee Chair

It is natural that as Zeta sisters, we help each other through hard times in our personal lives. But how does ZTA respond during other types of crises? The crises that affect our communities, our country or the world?

There was not a national fraternal focus on any specific crisis until the U.S. was shaken by the outbreak of World War I in July 1914. The U.S. entered the war in April 1917, and the May 1917 issue of Themis devoted 30 pages explaining how ZTA sisters could work for the American Red Cross in their communities.

In terms of a specific organizational plan, we did not really have one other than to cut expenses as much as possible and devote our time and money to working for our local Red Cross agencies. Members were urged to get medical training, if possible, in case the need for nurses grew. This was a time when chapters chose to give up things like rush parties, social dinners and dances and turn those funds over to local projects benefiting the soldiers fighting abroad. We have many chapter reports of members making bandages and knitting various clothing items to be sent overseas.

Zetas also became vitally interested in assisting the survivors of the Armenian genocide of 1915-16. Our early California collegiate chapters, notably Xi (University of Southern California) and Upsilon (University of California, Berkeley) and alumnae chapters were involved in raising relief funds and bringing refugees to the U.S. The husband of Mary Kimbrough Harty, one of Kappa

Chapter’s earliest initiates in 1907, was on the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief. She put on programs of awareness and fundraising in Texas during 1915, in a state where many had never met anyone of Armenian descent.

ZTA’s very own Grand President at the time, Dr. May Agness Hopkins, was involved in WWI in a more personal way. Dr. Hopkins went to France in June 1918 to head a children’s hospital but was instead called into service on the front lines near Chateau-Thierry with a group of nurses from Smith College. She did triage work on soldiers, performed operations, requisitioned supplies from the local populace and moved injured soldiers by boat to safer locations.

She stayed close to the front lines that summer, and her letters to other Grand Chapter officers mention her medical work, interspersed with directions for ZTA. It was only after the armistice was signed in November 1918 that she was able to do the work with children she had been brought to France to do, helping to repatriate French and Belgian child refugees for a few months. In a postwar interview, when asked about the change of plans and being sent to the front, she said, “But over here, haven’t you found out you do the thing that you were NOT sent here to do?” Dr. Hopkins was a great example of a Zeta who rose to the occasion and pitched in where needed, while still maintaining her ZTA ties at home.

At the end of WWI, the first influenza pandemic hit ZTA chapters that had just started to function normally after the war years. They were thrown into quarantines of chapter houses and colleges, with many members leaving campus and never returning. Our national position on the pandemic was to follow state and local guidelines and to assist as much as possible in local communities to help people get through waves of illnesses.

Zetas also answered the call to step in to fix problems where they saw them happening. Founder Frances Yancey Smith was aware of the inequities in the rural mountain areas of Virginia near ZTA’s Farmville birthplace. Her development of the ZTA Health Clinic in 1928 occurred at just the right time, as the Great Depression hit in October 1929. State and local governments had absolutely no funds to do outreach to the mountain communities, so Frances and her team of volunteer sisters, along with one paid nurse, took over medical and social services for the Currin Valley region in Virginia. ZTA saw the need and responded to it, making it our national philanthropic project. The Fraternity would continue to operate it through 1946, when the state of Virginia finally had resources after the end of World War II to begin development in the mountainous, rural areas.

WWII brought another round of challenges and crises to ZTA. By that time, the Fraternity was a much larger organization than during the first World War, and many members took leaves of absence from college to join the branches of the military. Normal chapter operations continued, but they were greatly reduced in size and scope, and many campuses turned into training centers for the military. ZTA even gave up many of their chapter facilities, like at Alpha Tau (University of Minnesota), to serve as housing for the soldiers in training. Many chapter members worked at USO recreational centers for soldiers and volunteered again with the Red Cross. Our national work focused on the Red Cross’s blood donor program, and Zetas across the country proved it wasn’t events or houses that made sisterhood possible, but the perseverance of the members and their willingness to sacrifice for others.

Outside of wartime, Zetas have stepped up in times of natural disasters. The campus of Washburn University in Kansas was hit by a destructive tornado June 8, 1966. This storm touched every building on campus, destroying many of them. The Alpha Mu chapter house wasn’t spared and took a direct hit. The facility had only just undergone a complete renovation, so that made the destruction even more painful. The alumnae chapters in Topeka and Kansas City rallied to help find housing for the displaced collegians and spent many days assisting in the cleanup of the entire campus. Chapters across the country donated all the items needed to run a chapter house, and with assistance from the Fraternity, the house was rebuilt within a year.

ZTA members have endured many other natural disasters like floods and tornadoes that have decimated the communities where we have chapters. The Fraternity has also responded to national emergencies like the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The recent COVID pandemic tested all Zetas in our capability to continue with normal activities. No campus was left untouched, and many of our regular operating procedures had to be altered to make gathering safe. Outside of wartime, we have never been tested as an organization in quite the same way.

There is no doubt that in a time of crisis, ZTA is always ready to respond. Resourceful and resilient, we have proven our readiness time and time again.