Joliet YMCA leader Katy Leclair named ‘Woman of the Year’ by Zonta Club

Members at the Zonta Club of Joliet Area still marvel at how Katy Leclair saved its 50th anniversary celebration in October from cancelation.

That’s one reason why Leclair, president and chief executive officer of the Greater Joliet Area YMCA, Zonta Club of Joliet member since 2018 and chairwoman of that celebration, was named the Zonta Club of the Joliet Area’s Woman of the Year.

“She saved our 50th anniversary event,” Peggy Field, chairwoman of the Woman of the Year committee, said in a news release from the Zonta Club of the Joliet Area. “She’s a strong woman who knows how to get things done. Her main focus was on the club.”

The original venue had an emergency the day before the event and could no longer host it, Leclair said. That gave Zonta less than 24 hours to find another location.

“Our 50th anniversary committee worked well into the night and was up early so we’d have a great celebration,” Leclair said. “We had two founding members celebrating 50 years of membership. To honor those women, we had to make it happen.”

Lora McGuire of Joliet, also a member of the Zonta Club of Joliet, said that’s just one example of Leclair “going above and beyond.”

“She exemplifies what a Zonta Woman of the Year does,” McGuire said.

Bonnie Winfrey, president of the Zonta Club of Joliet Area, said the club has bestowed the Woman of the Year award to a Zonta member every year since the club was founded in 1973.

“The ‘Woman of the Year’ award is a one-time honor which allows club members to nominate a worthy member,” Winfrey said in the release. “Zontians are encouraged to thoughtfully nominate one of their own who has utilized creativity, time and effort to help make a positive difference.”

During her years with Zonta, Leclair has served as vice president and supervised membership initiatives. Her Zonta 101 program “is still used to this day since it was so well organized and concise,” according to the release.

“I’m a firm believer in empowering women to make the community better and stronger.”

—  Katy Leclair, president and CEO of the Greater Joliet Area YMCA

McGuire nominated Leclair for membership after she’d met Leclair at a fundraiser.

“She was so full of energy and bubbly, and I thought, ‘This is somebody we need in Zonta,’ ” McGuire said/ “I told her about Zonta, and she jumped right in. She didn’t say, ‘Oh, I need to think about it.’ ”

A place where ‘women’s voices are heard’

Leclair said she loved Zonta Club of Joliet’s mission to make the world a better place by empowering women and knew the club was right for her.

“I’m a firm believer in empowering women to make the community better and stronger,” Leclair said. “Creating a platform where women’s voices are heard and where women are valued is really important to me.”

Leclair also liked the idea of strong, local women supporting each other to keep women safe from violence and overall “make communities better for women and girls.”

Finally, Leclair said she saw Zonta as a place “where we create opportunities for women to lead and lean on each other and learn from each other.”

Leclair said she learned the value of female empowerment at home.

“For me, growing up, my mom was a strong female leader,” she said. “And I looked up to her. She was someone who worked outside the home and empowered women to do whatever they dreamed of.”

From lifeguard to president and CEO

Leclair, who celebrated 21 years with the Greater Joliet Area YMCA in April, began her career at the YMCA as a summer lifeguard and swim instructor during her college years and never wanted to leave.

“I just fell in love with the organization’s sense of community,” Leclair said.

She became president and CEO of the Greater Joliet Area YMCA on July 12, 2021, and is so glad she’s spent most of her career at the YMCA.

“I wanted to be able to raise our son in the community I work and live in,” Leclair said. “We live in Plainfield, about three blocks from the Plainfield Y. It’s really important to give back to the community we live in.”

In her role at the YMCA, LeClair supervises three Y locations, the building of a new Y in Morris and 47 Kids Zone locations for before- and after-school programs in area schools, which serves 1,300 students in kindergarten through fifth grade in seven school districts.

The Greater Joliet YMCA also has 13 Teen Reach and Teen Achievers programs. Teen Reach “provides students with academic support, life skills education, recreational opportunities, mentorship, STEM, and service learning activities,” according to the YMCA website.

Teen Achievers “provides area high school students with the guidance and support they need to discover their identities, embrace their passions, and become their best selves,” according to the YMCA website.

Leclair also oversees 47 full-time employees and 687 part-time staff, according to the release. In all these years, Leclair has left the YMCA only once — to run a nonprofit that served children and families in crisis and who were oftentimes homeless, she said.

“It was the most heart-wrenching work,” Leclair said. “I wanted to take everyone home with me. It was so hard.”

Leclair said she is humbled to receive an award from a club comprised of “some of the most amazing woman” in the Joliet area.

“To be recognized as part of them is an honor to me,” Leclair said.

For more information, visit jolietzonta.org and jolietymca.org.