Norwalk Zetas Serving the Community

By Lorna Grisby

WESTPORT, CONN. (April 23, 2019) – As part of a long-standing commitment to community service, members of Alpha Alpha Rho Zeta chapter of ZetaPhi Beta Sorority, Inc. served a home-cooked meal to residents of the Gillespie Center on Saturday (April 21, 2019) and donated non-perishable food items to help stock the center’s soup kitchen.

“We celebrate Martin Luther King. Jr. Day by volunteering at Gillespie Center and we have been doing it for the past three years. This year, we decided to return quarterly,” said Waleska Macklin, chapter president. “We keep going back because the residents enjoy getting home-cooked meals. It warms our hearts to give back to the community.”

The Gillespie Center, operated by the Homes with Hope nonprofit agency, provides food, emergency shelter and help with finding permanent and supportive housing for people who are homeless. Given the center’s mission, the past president of Alpha Alpha Rho Zeta chapter, which is based in Norwalk and serves Fairfield County, determined supporting its residents would be in-keeping with Zeta Phi Beta’s own mission and established the chapter’s volunteer relationship.

Since Zeta Phi Beta’s inception nearly 100 years ago, members in chapters across the United States and abroad have worked to transform communities through the sorority’s educational initiatives, charitable contributions, promotion of legislation that promises positive social and civic change and, of course, volunteer service at organizations like the Gillespie Center.

In addition to its own members, Alpha Alpha Rho Zeta chapter, brought eight volunteers, who also dedicated their time and donated food to the Gillespie Center. Working together, the Zetas and those additional volunteers tried to make the holiday weekend special for the center’s 19 residents.

Ryan Soto, program director, Gillespie Center & Hoskins Place, said they did just that by ensuring residents had their fill of food (baked chicken, macaroni and cheese, candied yams, string beans, Spanish rice), water and dessert and by catering to their needs.

“It was great. The Zetas were sweet and polite. Every time they come, we have a wonderful time. The clients here really do appreciate them coming,” Soto said. “They really like the fact that the Zetas are so vivid, filled with energy and make them feel like they're living normal lives. The stigma behind being homeless sometimes gets to people and when the Zetas come, they don't make them feel that way. Plus, they really know how to put it down in the kitchen.”

Soto said volunteers, ranging from individuals to families to societal and church groups, as well as high school students, all volunteer at the Gillespie Center throughout the year. Like the other volunteers, the members of Alpha Alpha Rho Zeta chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority deliver a wonderful experience for the residents: “The Zetas bring a certain energy that is vibrant and lively … They make (the residents) feel welcome here.”

About Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated

Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated, was founded in 1920 by five co-ed students at Howard University who envisioned a sorority that would promote the highest standards of scholarship achievement, service, sisterhood and Finer Womanhood. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated, has a diverse membership of more than 120,000 college-educated women with more than 800 chapters in North America,Europe, Asia the Caribbean, Africa, and the Middle East. For more information, please visit www.zphib1920.org. To learn more about Alpha Alpha Rho Zeta chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., follow the chapter on Twitter: @AARhoZ_ZPhiB and Instagram: @aarhoz_zphib.