I haven’t been a student at CSUN long, but I have noticed that the Greek System is particularly creative when it comes time to raise money for their philanthropies.
A philanthropy event I came to admire recently is Alpha Xi Delta’s "Xi Champs" event that benefits Autism Speaks.
I have seen many one day, two day, and even three day events, but this is their crown jewel of philanthropy endeavors of the year that happened to be an all week event this year. I have spoken with both event coordinators (Ari Hernandez and Taylor Anderson, also referred to as the Xi Princesses), and learned about what their event consists of.
The theme is medieval, which has proven to be versatile so far. On the first night a member of each fraternity serves as a representative of their chapter, and they are called XI Knights. On their Monday night event the two princesses knight the representative from each chapter who has stepped up to the job. The knight’s job is to compete all week in the event, and also to rally support from all his brothers to compete fiercely to raise money for Autism Speaks.
Throughout the week the fraternities are given tasks to show their Alpha Xi Delta spirit, but also to help reach the goal of 20,000 dollars for Autism Speaks. One aspect of the event that occurs all week is their penny war. The penny war works like this, each fraternity has a water jug that they must fill with pennies. Each penny is worth a certain number of points, but all other currency subtracts from the point total.
As you can imagine, you can raise a lot of money when fraternity men get competitive and decide to drop twenty dollars bills in their competitor’s bank.
A number of other events occurred throughout the week as well, a shirt signing competition Tuesday, a spirit competition Wednesday, a fraternity talent show Thursday, and Friday included a jousting tournament.
Saturday the 21st, all the fraternities are invited to participate in the Autism Walk at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. While they don’t receive points for the walk, these sharp ladies have made it so that each ten dollars donated in sponsorship of a participant in the walk gets points. They have even managed to make Sunday work for them; they are having a silent auction full of wonderful items, but sadly it also marks the culmination of such an engaging, creative, and beneficial event.
All aspects of this event are cleverly woven in to supporting this great cause, and also, a great group of girls.
If you are interested in supporting Autism Speaks, and would like to sponsor me in the walk here is the link: http://www.walknowforautismspeaks.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=993444&lis=1&kntae993444=8B097D2C4B15470BB1AC34ECD5A12F0D&supId=352237865
