Rob Cruz - Phi Kappa Psi

This semester our fraternity is doing big things. One community service project we were involved with was the clean up of the Oneonta High School memorial garden. Another community service project we participated in was Punt Pass Kick. Punt Pass Kick is an event where we play football with little kids. We have completed over five hundred hours of community service hours collectively as a fraternity.

          Also this semester we initiated nine new brothers into our fraternity. The newest pledge class was named the Transcending Taus. These men have already proven that they will be a great addition to our chapter.

           The largest project we are involved with this semester is co-sponsoring a Hoodie Allen concert with Rage Productions. This concert will be November 5^th at the Oneonta Theatre. Hoodie Allen is a hip-hop and rap artist from Long Island, New York. For every ticket we sell as a fraternity, $1

will be donated to the Oneonta YMCA.

Britany Thomas - Lambda Theta Alpha

So this week we will be hosting the Malloween costume contest! It’s all very new and exciting for us! We can’t wait! Also, in November is our official Founder’s week! So fast a year has passed by! We are celebrating the week with a list of events ranging from educational programs to fundraisers for various organizations! We are all very excited and hope to see everyone at our events! Stay on the lookout flyers posted soon!

George Lenz - Alpha Phi Delta

Welcome back to Alpha Phi Delta’s blog. Big news since the last post, we have now grown in numbers to 20 members!!! On October 17^th we proudly inducted our 6 newest members! I would like to congratulate Will Breen, Tyler Kuznia, Brian Tighe, Todd Connally, Clinton Fagan, and Todd  Baumgartner. We are proud to call the 6 young men our fellow Alpha Phi Delta brothers.  We also sold Broneonta state pinnes. These were very popular and people loved them! You can currently see them being worn on campus almost daily, although I’m sure that is changing now that Oneonta’s weather is showing it’s true face. Speaking of raising money, we will also be selling “nuts for nuts” bracelets in the near future, so be on the lookout for those. On October 27^th, our very own president the brilliant Pete Donaghy, put on an LGBTQ program. I would like to congratulate him on a successful event. Although I did not personally attend I heard it was quite and informative and well executed event. The following day on October 28^th, Our organization put together a mummy wrapping station at the Halloween carnival that occurred from 4-7.  Ryan Kelly said it was quite busy, and the children had a blast. In fact some of the children even requested to wrap the brothers. I did not attend this event personally because I was participating in Halloween in the halls. I passed out candy to all of the children who came by. I had a great time handing out candy to the children and they were very in spirit as they came around all dressed in their costumes. There was a mix of everything, from a jack in the box, to a monkey, to power rangers, and vampires. I would like to congratulate everyone from Matteson hall who did a wonderful job in putting this event together.  It was wonderful and very well executed. On Sunday October 30^th, Phi Sigma Sigma held a kidney walk.  Most of our brothers attended this event to support our fellow greek life and support the cause.  There were burgers and other food. It was a great event and I would like to congratulate Phi Sigma Sigma on all the money they raised, I hope we helped make a difference! I was one of the very few brothers who could not attend. I hope everyone had a fantastic and safe Halloween weekend. So who thinks they had the best costume, let me know what it was in the comments section. Happy Halloween!!

Kim Chong - Sigma Gamma Phi

October has been a frantic, but very fun month here at SUNY Oneonta and especially for Sigma Gamma Phi! We are excited to have won the window painting contest and we are glad that our hard work has paid off! We also have six amazing new sisters and we recently had a very eventful Family Weekend where many of us were able to meet each other’s families. It was a fun weekend that ended with a dinner celebration at Stella Luna’s.

A few of us participated in the Mr. and Miss Oneonta Pageant by being judges and our very own Claire Connolly participated as Miss Sigma Gamma Phi. With multiple outfits and creative questions, it was very fun for all of us to watch as well as to be a part of. The beautiful Britany Thomas of Lamba Theta Alpha and handsome Travis Gardner of Phi Beta Sigma took the crowns of Mr. and Miss Oneonta.

In other exciting news – 5 of our sisters – Allison Clearwater, Kristen Maggio, Claire Connolly, Erin Fitzpatrick, and Jessica Samplaski have been initiated into Order of Omega which is a National Greek Honor Society that recognizes Greeks across campus who have achieved a high standard of leadership through activities within Greek life as well as outside of it.

Many of us have also participated in Order of Omega’s Halloween Carnival and Halloween in the Halls. The carnival was fun and we saw many children dressed in costumes! We provided candy and Halloween themed coloring pages. Between the carnival and walking children from building to building to trick or treat – we had a great time helping out!

Liz O'Connor - Sigma Delta Tau

Hello Greek blog readers! I’m sorry this is so late; it’s been a pretty hectic month for Sigma Delta Tau. Between bake sales, welcoming our five amazing new members into Sigma Delta Tau as our sisters and our charity walk for Prevent Child Abuse America I have barely had time to breathe. Whew!

One exciting thing I did get to participate it was the Mr. and Miss Oneonta pageant. Personally the mere thought of Toddlers in Tiaras episode sends chills up my spine but since my lovely sisters were kind enough to nominate me to represent them in the pageant I thought why not? I would be lying if I said in my younger years I hadn’t been secretly excited when those applications for Miss Teen USA that got sent to every girl 5-18 in the country graced my mailbox.

The pageant itself was a ton of fun and a huge success. Ultimately I was beat out by the hilarious and beautiful Britany of Lamda Theta Alpha but I took second runner up! Although I had a good run I am going to take this opportunity to hang up my sash and retire from the fiercely competitive world of pageants.

Signing off for now, but please check back for various photos and hijinks to learn more about Sigma Delta Tau!

Kim Chong - Sigma Gamma Phi

Sigma Gamma Phi is off to a very busy Fall 2011 semester. The sisters of Sigma Gamma Phi and myself are very excited to soon welcome our newest pledge class of six.

There has been a lot going on our campus, especially with many events hosted by Greeks such as Phi Sigma Sigma’s Not So Talented Talent Show hosted by one of our very own Arethusa girls – Damaris Fontanes. Today we participated in Sigma Sigma Sigma and Alpha Phi Delta’s Walk for Autism.  Along with these community service events we have participated in, the sisters of Sigma Gamma Phi make weekly visits to the Robynwood Home for Adults right here in Oneonta. We always have a great time with the residents of Robynwood.

This past weekend we had our Sister Retreat at College Camp. Many of our sisters as well as our advisor Christine Edwards attended the retreat. It was a fun night filled with smores, bracelet-making, movies, music, dance parties and many other team building activities. It was also nice to spend a night at College Camp with my sisters.

We participated in a window painting competition for Homecoming weekend and painted a window in Hunt Union. It can be seen from the main desk looking up. Next time you walk into Hunt Union, look up! Let us know what you think, and stay tuned for many more Thusa-news to come!

Britany Thomas - Lambda Theta Alpha

Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority, Inc., Epsilon Mu Chapter is proud to be currently seeking full recognition here at SUNY Oneonta! We started with just eight ladies but hope to watch our chapter flourish! In the meantime, the five remaining sisters have been BUSY, BUSY, BUSY! We have had two informationals this semester and are always willing to talk to any lady who thinks she may be interested in our wonderful organization! Our top event of the semester so far has been “Get them to the Greeks”! This event was an open panel discussion to try to build some understanding between mainstream and multi-cultural orgs! Greeks from both SUNY Binghamton(LTA) and SUNY Delhi(LAU) came out to participate and support!  Our chapter definitely believes it is important that as Greek organizations we respect one another and make the effort to understand one another! I personally feel Lambda Theta Alpha has truly empowered me to be a stronger woman. I also know that at any moment, day or night, I have someone I can call on and who will have my back. Being part of a sisterhood like this is indefinable and I’m truly thankful I made it a part of my life!       

Sammi Hollander- Sigma Sigma Sigma

Hello!
Hi I am Sammi Hollander of Sigma Sigma Sigma.  I have been so busy sorry for not blogging! But this semester is off to a great start for us.  We have 11 new members that are all amazing! They are currently involved in the new member program.  In September, we held an extremely successful philanthropy event!  It was called Rockin’ for Robbie.  Our philanthropy is for play therapy for terminally ill children.  All day we sat in rocking chairs in the quad and got friends and family to sponsor us, along with that we had pie a Sigma and we had boxes for spare change of people walking by.  I had so much fun raising money and knowing what it was for felt great.  I made sure to get even pennies from people walking by.  We raised over 1,000 dollars!  We also put on an Autism Walk with Alpha Phi Delta this past weekend and raised over 1,000 dollars again! Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend the Walk because I had work, but I heard so many people showed up and it was a great time. I’m very proud of the chapter and Alpha Phi Delta.  This tuesday, the 11th, we had Mr. and Mrs. Oneonta.  We had Erika Muccio, my roommate, participate.  She was great, sadly she didn’t win :(.  Shout out to the winners! You did great.  Sigma Sigma Sigma having a great semester so far, I’ll blog again soon!

George Lenz - Alpha Phi Delta

Hello everybody, this is not just my first ever Greek blog but also my first ever blog period.  First of all I would like to introduce myself. I am George Lenz of Alpha Phi Delta fraternity, I was inducted last fall as a part of the lambda class. This month so far has been quite a busy one for Alpha Phi Delta.  On October 7^th I was given an introductory meeting as to what I would be doing here as a blogger and I was given the down low on what I would be doing so that I can now bring you all the latest Alpha Phi Delta news. First on October 5^th I attended Get them to the greeks. I was actually given the privilege to participate as part of the panel during this event.  The event was hosted by the multi cultural organizations on campus and introduced us to some of their traditions and what makes them stand out amongst other organizations, as well as showing us how we are all alike. What was nice about this was not only did they teach us about their organizations but they were just as interested in learning how us “mainstream” organizations do things as well. On October 9^th Alpha Phi Delta held a walk for autism along side with Sigma Sigma Sigma. I believe I speak for all the fraternity brothers when I say we had a blast with this. It lasted from 10:30 until 3 pm and consisted of many different games and lots of food. Some of the games included water pong, some people were shooting hoops on the open basketball hoop, and we had a failed attempt at creating a human bubble game, although it was a great idea, and we had a lot of fun in our failure. We also painted Hunt Union windows with Sigma Sigma Sigma. I did not attend this event but word on the street was that it was quite a blast, and the art work looked beautiful.  On October 11^th, Mr. and Mrs. Oneonta pageant was held. This event was a lot of fun and I would like to congratulate all the participants and people involved in putting together such a fantastic event. Our very own Mr. Ray Krisa held his own up on stage. He provided humor during the creative segment as well as quite a spectacle during the formal wear segment. The girls in the crowd (and perhaps some guys) got quite rowdy as he walked out in nothing but a tie and slacks. I don’t think you can get any closer to the definition of stud than that. And that’s the end of my first blog, let me know how I did in the comments section.