The Wilton Kiwanis Foundation and the Judith B. Zucker Community Engagement Fund (Zucker Fund) announced that the first person awarded with Judith B. Zucker Community Engagement Award is Wilton resident Virginia “Gini” Benin.
The Zucker Fund — established last year by the Wilton Kiwanis Foundation in collaboration with the family of long-time resident and civic leader Judy Zucker, who passed away in 2023 — has created a $5,000 award that celebrates and honors individuals who reflect Zucker’s extraordinary legacy of volunteer public service to Wilton.
According to the award announcement, “each year, the Fund will present the cash award to an individual whose actions exemplify Judy’s selfless devotion to the Wilton community, her commitment to excellence, and her spirit of kindness, inclusiveness, generosity, humility and grace.”
Benin was nominated by resident Pam Klem, who is the convener for the Wilton League of Women Voters. “Within days of reading about the Zucker Award in GOOD Morning Wilton, the Steering Committee of the Wilton League of Women Voters asked, ‘Who should we nominate?'” Klem said. “There wasn’t really any discussion, because the answer was obvious: Gini,” she said, adding, “May I grow up to be like her.”
Benin has served the Wilton community as a leader and member of an exceptional range of civic organizations since the 1970s. A deeply active member of the non-partisan Wilton League of Women Voters for the last 50 years, she initiated community sessions and study groups examining issues at the national, state and local levels, and has supported candidate forums, debates and get-out-the-vote efforts every year since 1976. She served in various leadership roles over the years with the Wilton Parent-Teacher Association, then was elected and served on Wilton’s Board of Education and later the Board of Finance. She also served on Wilton’s Council on Ethics, as well as on the boards of the Wilton Library and Visiting Nurse and Hospice of Fairfield County, and continues her membership to this day on the board of the Wilton Historical Society.
Benin’s hands-on work in town over the decades includes countless examples. She worked to build a consensus in 2001 to evaluate research on sleep needs for high school age students, leading to the town’s decision to switch Wilton schools’ start times to enable a later start time for Wilton High School. She also has been a driving force in the preservation of historic spaces, including Wilton’s newly-rediscovered 18th century Spruce Bank African-American cemetery, a final resting place for enslaved and free Black and Indigenous residents in the town.
The award will be formally presented to Benin in a ceremony at the Wilton Kiwanis Club luncheon on Wednesday, Apr. 22.
The Zucker Fund is managed by the Wilton Kiwanis Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization and all donations to the Fund are tax-deductible. Further information about the Zucker Fund is available on the Wilton Kiwanis Club website.