At the March 2014 meeting of the General Federation of Women's Clubs (GFWC) of Connecticut, Kathy DeBurra, who was finishing her term as president of the Madison Women's Club, was named state representative for the upcoming GFWC 2014 Annual Convention, which was held June 21 to 24 in Chandler, Arizona.

Out of the many stateside and international club presidents, one woman from each state or country with a Woman's Club is selected to attend the annual convention.

"It was big for Madison to have someone picked," Kathy says. "We'd never had anyone picked before. It was very, very cool-but you're only as good a leader as the people beside you, so [the other club members] definitely brought me to that level of recognition."

Kathy served as president of the Madison Women's Club from 2012 to 2014, and now that honor is held by Donna Farrell. Kathy will advise as parliamentarian and will also serve as interim treasurer.

"During that time we did some wonderful, wonderful projects," Kathy says of her term as president, "and I think that's why they picked me as a leader to represent the state at the national convention."

Just a few of the causes served by the Madison Women's Club during Kathy's tenure as president were: Stuff an Ambulance, collecting items for Sandy Hook residents, and knitting more than 100 blankets last year for those in need.

"The club members find a cause and find a way to creatively make money, and they give all the money they raise away," Kathy says. "Every two years they pick a CIP, Community Improvement Project. We just recently did one for Madison Land Trust. We did the garden tour to fulfill their wish list and we made over $5,000, so they got to do both parts of their request."

One benefit to attending the national convention in Arizona was that Kathy "got to go home," she says.

Kathy was born in Connecticut, but her father, who fought in Normandy as a Navy Seabee, had breathing problems that were best soothed by the hot, dry Arizona climate. The family came back to Connecticut for Kathy's senior year of high school.

"Even though I was born in Connecticut I grew up in Arizona, so I don't know which is home," she says with a laugh. "I guess it's nice to have two homes."

Kathy and her husband, Sam, have been married for 34 years and have three children. Samantha just turned 31, Sam is 29, and Lawrence is 26. Sam and Lawrence live in Madison and Samantha lives in New York City. The Madison DeBurras enjoy meeting up with their New York City counterpart whenever everyone is free.

Kathy says, "Being that my husband's a volunteer firefighter, and I'm a volunteer, I made sure they are also volunteers. The boys are volunteer firemen at Madison Hose and my daughter is a Big Sister in the city, which is a wonderful program, so I'm kind of proud that they took that on as part of their lifestyle."

Kathy considers herself lucky.

"I'm blessed with everybody being healthy and I'm very proud that I can spend time in my community and the Women's Club," she says, recalling her first foray into the club 25 years ago. "I remember my neighbor invited me to a meeting and I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know if it was going to be like a tea party or whatever, and they were just amazingly busy, and what I like to be is busy. I probably have been on every committee and held every office that the club has."

Not one to go blindly into any situation, Kathy read up on Women's Clubs when her neighbor extended the invite.

"I remember when she first invited me, I did a little research to find out what the club was all about," Kathy says. "Women's Clubs got together in the 1900s 'til about 1925, creating libraries. There was even a group from our town, from Madison-Marie Scranton was part of that and also part of the Women's Club.

"There was this really cool story about them. They were going to take on Washington and they jumped in an open Model T Ford that one of them had and made their way down to Washington, D.C. to take on the government to get money for their libraries."

Though she was impressed by the spirit of past Women's Club members, Kathy is even more in awe of the women around her now.

"They do wonderful things in town, our club," she marvels. "Currently, as everyone is well aware in the town of Madison, we're all praying and hoping for Chris and Amanda Bernier to have a healthy baby. About three or four years ago, the club had a very successful wine tasting. It's a lot of work. You need to have state permits, and there's a lot that goes into it, so we hadn't done another one in a while. So we decided, let's just do another one to help this family.

"Chris helps us every year with our babysitting seminar, and I think everybody is moved by this story," she says. "If a need comes along, that's just kind of what this great group of gals does."

The wine tasting was held Sept. 5 and raised more than $12,000 for the Berniers. Kathy can hardly contain her excitement-not that she wants to.

"It was incredible. This community is fantastic," she gushes. "We are so inspired. Those successes only fuel our fire to forge ahead. We are so grateful to the community."

The momentum from the wine tasting will carry the club through its upcoming endeavors.

"October is a big month for us," Kathy says. "It's Domestic Violence Prevention Awareness Month. The selectmen will declare Oct. 16 as a day dedicated to awareness in Madison."

But before that, some fundraising of the more carefree variety awaits.

"At the end of the month we'll be at Lenny and Joe's at the carousel and any money we get from that will go to our scholarship we give out at the high school," Kathy says. "The club gives out one scholarship and three awards to accomplished students. As I said, these women find a need and find a way to somehow fix it or help it or make it better. We have about 65 members now."

Kathy's affection for her "gang of gals" is apparent in everything she says about them. "They're each their own identity. They each have their own strengths and passions that they love to follow."

To learn more about the Madison Women's Club, visit www.womensclubofmadison.org.

To nominate someone for Person of the Week, email Melissa at

m.babcock@shorepublishing.com.