Founders' Day Proclamation 2008

It was a "weekend of changeable, autumnal weather" with a "faint carpet of snow", "a day of brilliant sunshine" and "the flaming colors of autumn." It was November 15, 1924, the first time in 26 years that the eight living Founders of Zeta Tau Alpha had gathered for a reunion.

Maud Jones Horner had passed away in 1920 and Grand Chapter wanted to ensure that Zeta's beginnings were properly recorded while the memories where still fresh. So, the eight Founders came together in Richmond, VA to put their memories to paper. "There is no way to know any subject except by getting to the heart of it," Historian Emerita Shirley Kreasan Stout would later write. "Around a big table, as in a board of directors' meeting, everything was quite cozy as the early days were gone over, mementos produced and many disputed points settled."

The result of that reunion was The History of Zeta Tau Alpha 1898-1928, Volume 1 first published in 1928 and Volume 2 first published in 1929.

Eighty years after the first printing of The History, on our 110th Founders' Day, nine former National Presidents, representing 40 years of ZTA leadership, will gather at our beautiful International Office in Indianapolis to sign newly reprinted copies of the new three-volume set of The History of Zeta Tau Alpha. These devoted Zetas will also meet around a conference table to study mementos and historic documents that will become part of the permanent archives. They will join National Council members for the Founders' Day Ceremony in the rotunda. By the candlelight of nine burning tapers, they will promise to further the ideals that our Founders left in our care.

As each member and chapter remembers our Founders on this day, may we all pledge to preserve our heritage to ensure that every year our beloved Zeta Tau Alpha grows stronger in love, the greatest of all things.

Given under my hand and seal, I proclaim the fifteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord, two thousand and eight, as our 110th Founders' Day.

Laura Ladewig Mauro, National President
Winnsboro, Texas -- October 2008