Greek life philanthropic work connects Lehigh and Bethlehem community

Members of Alpha Phi perform at the Derby Days Dance competition hosted by Sigma Chi in Packard Hall on Monday, Apr 13, 2015. The Huntsman Cancer Institute is Sigma Chi’s philanthropy. (Chris Barry/B&W Photo)

Sigma Chi hosted its annual philanthropy event, Derby Days, last week to raise money for the Huntsman Cancer Foundation, its national philanthropy.

The Derby Days are a week of competitions and events between the university’s sororities. The winning sorority of the competition is awarded half of the money raised to be donated to the charity of its choice. This year, Zeta Tau Alpha won the competition.

Each Greek chapter is affiliated with a specific philanthropy, and Derby Days is only one event hosted by a Greek organization in order to raise money for national philanthropies and charities.

Yehia Awad, ’17, the community service chair for Sigma Chi, said the chapter has a Derby Days committee every year to help organize the event. They are responsible for reserving the spaces where the events are held, and planning out the activities.

Sigma Chi also hosts an annual event with Alpha Omicron Pi during which chapter members seesaw continuously for 50 hours and collect money to be donated to a cause of their choice. This year, they raised money for leukemia and lymphoma because a brother in the house had a younger sister diagnosed with leukemia.

The seesaw event takes place on the front lawn in the middle of campus. Awad said Greek organizations typically avoid fundraising events in the greater Bethlehem community because the heart of campus presents a larger pool of people who will donate money.

“If the opportunity to fundraise is on campus, rather than a middle school or somewhere off campus, people are more inclined to go,” Awad said.

Aaron Monieson, ’17, the community service and philanthropy chair of Theta Xi fraternity, said although a lot of Greek organizations raise money only within the confines of Lehigh’s campus, being involved with the South Bethlehem community is something his fraternity prides itself on.

Members of Theta Xi work with a local homework club and hold a basketball clinic with the children. Monieson said Greek organizations should really focus on the Bethlehem community because they are Lehigh’s neighbors.

Members of Kappa Delta perform at the Derby Days Dance competition hosted by Sigma Chi in Packard Hall on Monday, Apr 13, 2015. The winning sorority gets half of the proceeds raised to go to the philanthropy. (Chris Barry/B&W Photo)

“Anyone can run an event on the front lawn and raise money, but it’s a more personal connection when you actually work with the kids of the community and hear their stories,” Monieson said. “It really humbles brothers when these kids come to us with their problems, and it goes a lot further than raising money for a national philanthropy. There is a more immediate impact on your community when you actually work with them.”

Sydney Glenn, ’17, the philanthropy chair for Alpha Omicron Pi sorority, said her chapter’s charity is the National Arthritis Foundation and the money it raises is donated toward research for Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis.

When organizing fundraising events, Glenn said the chapter has to reserve space through Lehigh, contact the Lehigh University Police Department to hire a police officer to stand by on security, and spread the word through social media and fliers. Depending on the event and turn out, Glenn said the chapter typically raises more than $1,000.

Glenn attributes her sorority’s success to being able to advertise events and contact students on campus.

“I know that we do events with some local businesses, like keeping The Goose open late, but I definitely think we can improve on including the whole community,” she said.

Glenn added that a difficult part of raising money at Lehigh is trying to break even with the cost of actually planning the event. The expenses of reserving space and hiring a police officer required by the school can be expensive.

While these expenses can prove to be costly, Justin Glock, ’17, the philanthropy chair of Theta Chi fraternity, said that scheduling fundraising events on campus using Lehigh facilities is much easier than trying to figure out a location off campus. Arranging transportation and getting Lehigh students and peers to go to these events would be more difficult.

“I know efforts are being made to better integrate our Lehigh community with the Bethlehem community, and I think in the future, Greek organizations will begin to include areas outside of Lehigh in their events,” Glenn said.