SHELBURNE FALLS — The Mary Lyon Foundation is marking 35 years of supporting education across western Franklin County and carrying on the legacy of its namesake.

To celebrate the foundation’s work and to honor Mary Lyon, Susan Samoriski, former executive director and founder of the Mary Lyon Foundation, welcomed a group of women who attended Mount Holyoke College to her home on Feb. 28. Lyon was a pioneer in women’s education, founding the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in 1837 that would evolve into Mount Holyoke College in 1893.

“She was an incredible woman and she really valued education for women,” said Zephorene Helmreich, who attended the event dressed as Eliza Baylies Wheaton, Lyon’s friend and founder of Wheaton College.

Katherine McKay, who dressed as Mary Lyon for the lunch, said Lyon was born to a farming family in Buckland on Feb. 28, 1797 and had a difficult early life. Her father died when she was 5 years old, and her mother remarried and moved away when she was 13, leaving Lyon to take care of the farm with her older brother.

Despite these challenges, Lyon was still able to get an education and became dedicated to extending educational opportunities to girls of all backgrounds. She helped develop the curriculum for Wheaton College, with the goal of providing women with an education as rigorous as the curriculum taught at men’s colleges. Lyon taught there for a number of years before setting off to establish Mount Holyoke.

“She didn’t just teach embroidery and household skills. She taught math, literature; one of her favorite things to teach was chemistry,” McKay explained.

Samoriski said she never attended Mount Holyoke, but she deeply believes in Lyon’s mission and has held Mary Lyon birthday parties on and off for years. In the past, the event was held at the Mary Lyon House on Upper Street, where Lyon first taught classes to girls and where Samoriski lived until recently. Although Samoriski sold the Mary Lyon House and moved to her family home in Shelburne Falls, she still wanted to host a party in Lyon’s honor.

“This house was purchased in 1929 for $4,000 by my grandparents and has been in the family ever since,” Samoriski said of the new venue. “I had rented it out for the past 33 years, but I’m home now and I love Shelburne Falls.”

Samoriski served lunch at the kitchen table “where the Mary Lyon Foundation was born,” and invited a group of Mount Holyoke students and alumni to share their stories from the college and contemplate Lyon’s legacy.

“I always dreamed of going to Mount Holyoke since I saw Anita Hill speak there in the late ’90s,” said Conway resident Tani Rivera, a current Mount Holyoke student. “Walking through those gates and hearing her talk, and going to the classrooms, since then it’s always been in the back of my mind that I really need to be here.”

Attendees shared similar stories of being inspired by their mothers and grandmothers who attended Mount Holyoke, and were amazed by Lyon’s legacy and the thousands of women that have received an education thanks to her efforts, as well as modern efforts to expand education in Lyon’s name.

According to the Mary Lyon Foundation’s 2025 Impact Report, the foundation has distributed more than 640 winter coats, 350 backpacks, 208,000 pounds of groceries and $250,000 in scholarships to help local students, among other initiatives.

Reach Madison Schofield at 413-930-4579 or mschofield@recorder.com.