philanthropy – The Transcript

DG and Sig Ep dribble to victory

By Alanna Henderson, Managing Editor

Fraternity and sorority teams took it to the hoop for Phi Delta Theta’s (Phi Delt) annual spring basketball tournament.

Phi Delt held its 3v3 basketball tournament April 8 in the fraternity’s backyard court.

Delta Gamma (DG) and Sigma Phi Epsilon (Sig Ep) came out victorious and were each awarded $150 that went toward their own philanthropies.

Typically, winners receive a physical trophy, but Phi Delt’s chapter advisory board donated money to encourage other fraternities and sororities to compete. The tournament was divided into two brackets—one for fraternities and the other for sororities.

“It was a great win … but the money to our own philanthropy made the win even better because it wasn’t about us any more, it was about Service for Sight,” DG team player Lisa Zeller said.

Around 50 Greek community members came out to enjoy the sunshine and cheer for their teams and almost all Greek organizations donated or participated.

Senior Phi Delt member and philanthropy chair Lucas Janowicz planned the tournament for the rst time.

“The most rewarding part of putting an event like this together is seeing it come to fruition, and seeing members of the Greek community supporting each other and supporting a terri c cause,” Janowicz said.

The brothers host a spelling bee competition in the fall semester and the basketball tournament in the spring semester. Several brothers of Phi Delt volunteer for Big Brothers Big Sisters of America on a weekly basis and have for years, but the chapter’s philanthropy events serve the ALS Association.

OWU Phi Delt members are in the works of planning a 5k run in Delaware to help get the community more involved and partner with the Phi Delt members from Otterbein University.

“Being a retired philanthropy chair, I understand the hard work there is put into events like this, so I’m always one of the rst people to sign up,” Phoebe Bush, player for Delta Delta Delta, said. “I thought [Phi Delt] had a great event.”

To learn more about this international fraternity, visit https://www.phideltatheta. org.

Kappa Karaoke invites organizations to sing for charity

By Orion Wright, Transcript Correspondent

Ohio Wesleyan University dents will soon have an opportunity to sing, dance and raise money for children’s literacy all at once.

On April 10, the Rho Deuteron chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma will host Kappa Karaoke. Teams representing Greek-letter organizations, Small Living Units and other clubs will compete in song and dance while raising money for Reading is Fundamental. There is a $5 fee for those who don’t want to participate but still want to watch the show.

“Kappa Karaoke is Kappa’s spring philanthropy to raise money for our national philanthropy Reading is Fundamental,” KKG philanthropy chair Alix Templeman said. “Those who perform get judged by a judging panel and whoever wins gets bragging rights.”

While the final scores come down to the opinions of the judges, “audience reaction and creativity are definitely taken into account,” Templeman said.

Kappa Karaoke has been an ongoing tradition for more than 10 years, with a different theme every year.

Teams are encouraged to choose songs which follow the theme and change the lyrics of their songs to reflect the spirit of the philanthropy, said Templeman.

When the theme was Boy Bands, “. . . it was really awesome. Theta did a performance of NSYNC vs Backstreet Boys.”

Reading is Fundamental champions children’s literacy through “meaningful research, quality content and equal access to impact all kids with the power of reading,” having distributed more than 412 million books to 40 million children nation-wide, according to its website. RIF encourages those whose lives have been affected by its programs to share their stories.

Many teams are already preparing for the event.

“[Our team has] done it every year. We’re still narrowing down our song but the list is all throwbacks that everyone knows and can sing when it comes on,” OWU senior Kevin Rossi said. “Dancing is a given, we might have some props like we did last year. Either way, we’re probably going to win it and it’s going to be fun regardless.”

KKG’s national partnership with RIF was made by Ann Truesdell, once a chapter president of Rho Deuteron, Templeman said. They have maintained a partnership since to further the cause of children’s literacy.

Thetas win gold at DZ dodgeball

By Sara Hollabaugh, Online Editor

The OWU community came together to dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge.

The Delta Zeta (DZ) sorority hosted a turtle-filled dodgeball tournament on Sunday, April 2.

Organized by DZ’s Vice President of Philanthropy, Katie Kuckelheim, the dodgeball tournament supported the Starkey Hearing Foundation.

“Since 1954, speech and hearing has been Delta Zeta’s national philanthropy and since 2006 Delta Zeta, has been partners with the Starkey Hearing Foundation,” Kuckelheim said. “Starkey Hearing Foundation gives hearing aids to those all over the world.”

Kuckelheim said Delta Zeta has participated in a five year ve million dollar campaign to benefit the Starkey Hearing Foundation.

At the dodgeball tournament, held in Branch Rickey, greek teams and sports teams went against each other in a double-elimination-type bracket.

In the final stages of the tournament, Delta Gamma (DG) went against Chi Phi for third place, with Delta Gamma taking the trophy and Phi Gamma Delta (FIJI) went against Kappa Alpha Theta (Theta) for rst and second.

After a close match, Theta won gold.

Senior and team captain, Lydia Hall, played in her third DZ Dodgeball tournament.

“We played by the traditional dodgeball rules with an added twist. Throughout the week we collected rubber turtles from members of Delta Zeta,” Hall said. “During each game we could use 3 turtles to bring a player who was out back into the game.”

Hall said she loved the addition of the turtles because it not only helped teams advance but was a fun way for students to get excited for the event throughout the prior week.

“Philanthropy events are always fun but most importantly they are an excellent way to raise awareness,” Hall said. “It was really great to see other organizations on campus be involved and excited about the event. It was a chance for all of us to be together, support our Greek friends, and engage in some friendly competition.”

Kuckelheim said DZ does not yet know exactly how much they raised for the event.

For more info on Starkey, go to their website: https://www.starkeyhearingfoundation.org/.

Delta Gamma’s annual philanthropy event makes a splash

By Aleksei Pavloff, Sports Editor

Greek life at Ohio Wesleyan University came together to participate in Delta Gamma’s Anchor Splash, and other drives to raise money for a philanthropic cause just last week.

Every spring semester, Delta Gamma (DG) holds Anchor Splash at the Meek Aquatic and Recreation Center. To help raise funds, the sorority also organized some small competitions during the week of Feb. 20-24

The funds raised go towards Service for Sight. According to deltagamma.org, Service for Sight is a non profit created by DG to help the visually impaired.

Alpha Sigma Phi and Delta Zeta were the winners of this year’s Anchor Splash.

“We are happy that we won,” said sophomore Andrew Alaniz who is also a member of Alpha Sigma Phi Fraternity. Alaniz said that they lost a lot of points early on in the week but was pleased with how they were able to work together in the other activities.

“Seeing everyone come together for a good cause is something special to see,” said sophomore Maggie Greer. As officer of the Anchor Games Greer was responsible for organizing the swimming events that took place on Friday.

“It was hard at first, but with help I was able to organize and get things together,” said Greer. “It was a great experience.”

Throughout the week leading up to the swimming events, fraternities and sororities collect pennies for what DG calls “penny wars”. Pennies that are collected by specific fraternities and sororities get counted for points. According to Greer, the top three organizations that collect the most get points awarded to their house.

Then comes the banner making where fraternities and sororities compete to see who can make the best one. The banner must to be placed in the atrium in the Hamilton-Williams Campus Center no later than Thursday night.

To qualify for the banner competition, each organization’s banner must feature Delta Gamma or its iconic anchor. The fraternity or sorority that makes the best banner is awarded the most points.

Delta Gamma’s judges emphasize creativity when it comes to designing banners.

“It is really cool to see people be as creative as possible,” said Greer.

Also on Thursday, serenades for the senior members of the sorority were held.

Together, they travel to every greek house where the members of that organization have to sing to them. The songs vary from pop to old time classics. However, extra points are rewarded for those serenades that have Delta Gamma related adaptations.

Throughout the week, participants receive more points through social media shout outs. This includes mentioning DG or Anchor Splash on any of the major social media outlets such as, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Those organizations that participated in the week long activities gathered in Meek to compete in races of various kinds on Friday. One notable competition involved two team members pulling an inflatable whale. In it, a DG member rides on the whale’s back, to the opposite side of the pool where two teammates are waiting to ride it back across.

The funds raised are yet to be fully counted, but Greer approximated that they raised close to $1,000 for this year’s Anchor Splash.

Greeks dodge for a cause

By: Ashley Day, Transcript correspondent

Members of Delta Gamma get their game faces on. Photo courtesy of Spenser Hickey.

The five D’s of dodgeball — dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge — were displayed Friday at Branch Rickey Arena when Delta Zeta held a charity dodgeball tournament to raise money for the Starkey Hearing Foundation.

Seven teams competed for the championship title of DZ Dodgeball, all composed of members of various Ohio Wesleyan sororities and fraternities. Each team brought a different approach to the game, making the competition very intense, DZ philanthropy chair Elizabeth Prior, a junior, said.

Junior Lili Fikter, a Delta Zeta, flashes a smile for the camera. Photo courtesy of Facebook.

Delta Zeta has held six dodgeball tournaments, but the competition among the teams became too aggressive at the event in 2013, which caused DZ Dodgeball to be shut down. In place of dodgeball, their new philanthropy event was DZ Dance-Off. This was a dance competition held in Milligan Hub, which was judged by their seniors, DZ president junior Mary Peterson said.

“Our event was well-known on campus and the competition level was very high between many of the teams,” Peterson said. “Because our philanthropy events serve to raise money for our causes, we wanted to try something a little more light and carefree, so that the focus of the event was our philanthropy.”

Although DZ Dance-Off was a success, members of the chapter did not think it built as much hype as DZ Dodgeball did in the past. With this in mind, Peterson and Prior determined and fixed the main issues of the past events and made the decision to hold a DZ Dodgeball tournament again, Peterson said.

A new game of dodgeball begins. Photo courtesy of Spenser Hickey.

“Delta Zeta loves dodgeball,” Peterson said. “We just needed to make sure the focus of the event was kept on our philanthropy and not just the competition.”

In its first year back, DZ Dodgeball raised approximately $550 for the Starkey Hearing Foundation. Starkey is a nonprofit organization that funds cochlear implants for those who cannot afford it. Delta Zeta-National signed a pledge to raise $5 million in five years for the organization, Prior said.

Even though they took a year off, Peterson believes this year’s event was very successful. Many organizations were unable to attend, but they were still able to make the same amount as years prior, Peterson said.

“We hope that by next year, our event will be officially reestablished as one of the biggest, most exciting events on campus,” Peterson said.