Tuesday, November 28, 2017

Fall 2017 Community Service Updates

Our fraternities and sororities are all about helping out the community! Here is a look at what a few of our organizations have been up to so far this semester....

Pi Delta Chi – 635.75 Hours
     We have a couple of projects coming up, such as:
A clothing drive with Oneonta RAC         
One of our alumni works at Opportunities for Community Living, which provides housing, support services, and care coordination for people recovering from mental illness and those living with HIV/AIDS or other chronic health conditions. We are doing a hygiene drive to donate materials for World AIDs day.
We are teaming up with the Oneonta Kindness Team (they have the table outside of the sip that gives rides home to people) to provide those who are out and about during the night. Pi Chi is sponsoring a night where we hand out blankets, water, food and whatever else people may need!
We also have an alumni who is currently volunteering at a Learning Center in the Philippines, so we are planning a school supply drive and fundraising event to donate to the children who go to the learning center. The center depends on donations in order to help these kids stay off of the streets and they have the opportunity to learn English as well.

Phi Sigma Sigma – 548.5 Hours
      The community service co-chairs have put together numerous events for our organization to gain community service hours and help out the town of Oneonta. We have put on multiple drives collecting supplies and money for various different causes. These causes include collecting new school supplies, money for hurricane relief, animal shelter supplies, supplies for Puerto Rico relief. Along with tabling events, donating blood, volunteering at events like the Pit Run, family weekend, omega carnival, and other events; we also recently donated Halloween E-cards to the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles to bring a smile to their faces. We also had our annual Kidney Foundation Walk on October 22nd with guest speakers, music, games, drinks, candy, and a fun atmosphere that raised $137 to the National Kidney Foundation. We will continue to collect supplies and money for different causes and set up a visit to an animal shelter very soon.




Sigma Gamma Phi – 637 Hours
     This semester, fall 2017, Sigma Gamma Phi has participated in several community service events throughout the community as well as our philanthropy, Opportunities for Otsego. Starting in September, we participated in Saturday’s Bread where several girls volunteered and served at the soup kitchen for the day. Another volunteer event that we hold is bingo every Tuesday night at Robynwood Home for Adults. We go to Robynwood from 6:30-7:30PM every week and play bingo and spend time with the patients there. We also had girls participate in being tour guides for Halloween in the Halls and lead families from building to building across campus.
We also held our annual Substance Abuse Awareness Walk this October with Alpha Sigma Phi where we collected money and donated it towards the LEAF Council on Alcoholism. The goal of the LEAF council is to reduce the serious personal, social, and economic consequences of alcoholism, other drug addictions and associated problems. Our organization donated around $150 to the cause. We have another walk coming up this November as well which will be held with the organization Sigma Delta Tau. This walk will be held on November 19th from 12-2PM in the Hunt Ballroom. Proceeds from this event will be split evenly between our two philanthropies with our half of the money being donated towards the Head Start program. The head start program is a comprehensive preschool that promotes school readiness of children between the ages of 3-5 years who are from low income families.
This holiday season, we will also be donating $60 out of our community service budget towards the human ecology club who is donating money and baskets of food for thanksgiving to families in need through FSA. This October, our assistant community service chair held an event to raise money towards Breast Cancer awareness with Alpha Epsilon Pi. This event was held at a girls’ soccer game on October 20th where there were games such as “bra pong” and baked goods being sold, all proceeds going directly towards breast cancer awareness.

Sigma Delta Tau – 1146 Hours
     The community service chair gave opportunities that involved collecting donation bags for Opportunities for Otsego, fundraising for our philanthropies, and encouraging participation in opportunities offered by other organizations and IGC. A number of sisters also earned additional hours from internships this semester.

Sigma Sigma Sigma – 4556 Hours
     The Sisters of Sigma Sigma Sigma have participated in many community service events this Fall semester. These events include our bi-annual philanthropy Rocking for Robbie which raises money for play-therapy for terminally-ill children; Saturday’s bread, the local soup kitchen; volunteering at the Boys and Girls Club of Oneonta- playing dodge-ball, basketball and doing arts and crafts with the children. Many of our sisters participate in community service on their own time, including internships, the Pit Run, and other areas around our local community as well as in their hometown.
Chi Phi -852.5 Hours  
     This semester, the brothers of chi phi have held and attended multiple events through SUNY Oneonta and throughout the community.  Our brothers, alongside the brothers of the alpha sigma phi fraternity, held our annual 9/11 memorial remembering all that we had lost during that tragic day.  Next, our chapter held a spike ball tournament (new event to our chapter). This event was open to the public and aimed to raise money towards our national philanthropy, the Boys & Girls Club of America.  On October 25th, a large amount of brothers volunteered three hours at the Boys & Girls Club Halloween Party here in Oneonta.  Brothers ran concession stands, supervised games for the kids, and even got to scare them in the haunted house. At the end of the event we presented a check with the amount we raised from the spike ball tournament to the Boys & Girls Club of America.
Beta Chi – 202 Hours
    The events Beta Chi held on campus involved fundraising for local Veterans along with raising money to supplying clean water filters for Guatemala. We have also created on campus events and spoke about the local “brothers of the blacklist” that took place here at Oneonta to race awareness against racial discrimination. Along with the events we have held, our members have attended and recorded various on campus events among their years at the college such as Cancer walks, setting up and running table events, and alcohol awareness programs. We have also filed sheets in the past for attending meetings and events such as the bone marrow drive we had this semester. All of the codes for these events from each member of my organization were volunteer services and didn’t require signatures for service learning.

Alpha Sigma Phi – 356 Hours
      As the community service chair of Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity, we have performed exceptionally well during these last few months. We were able to partner with three Greek organizations and supported two other organizations with their events. I am a new member of the fraternity and have been super proud to hold a leadership position. This is adding great value and knowledge on how to manage my time and being a leader. The fraternity couldn’t be more proud of our achievements and connections we achieved this semester.
Our support as a Greek organization has been incredible this semester. We were finally able to re-partner with Chi Phi fraternity for their annual 9/11 memorial event. It was incredible to be a part of something that affected so many lives and to pay tribute to those that sacrificed their lives. This was a great and proud moment at our fraternity and we will continue the tradition yearly with Chi Phi. Another great opportunity aroused with Pi Delta Chi sorority with their annual breast cancer awareness walk. The brothers of Alpha Sigma Phi went to the event and supported the cause. This went extremely well because not only did we create a great relationship as two Greek organizations, but we showed our support and respect for those who might have been affected.
For the future, we hope to plan more community service events that are further from the town of Oneonta. We hope to continue our annual traditional walks and services and add more in the next coming months.
Phi Kappa Psi – 915 Hours
      This semester Phi Psi has done many community service events. One thing has been the street clean ups. We've walked around Oneonta picking up garbage left from the weekend on Sunday four times this semester so far. We also helped our old advisor, Amy, pack up and move out of her house. The Historical Society also required our help to move furniture around to help them with an auction. As always we also had brothers doing security for the fall concert too. A few weeks ago we also teamed up with the sisters of Tri Sig and went to the Boys and Girls club of Oneonta to play with the kids who went there. With all of these events, chapter/committee hours, IGC events, leadership conferences, and more the brothers of Phi Kappa Psi have done over 900 hours. We also have a walk to help with the Hurricane relief on the 29th.


Kappa Sigma - 435 Hours
     Kappa Sigma Fraternity has done a lot for the Oneonta community and communities around New York State this Fall semester. Kappa Sigma's mission statement for service "Members, individually and collectively, should work toward the betterment of their campus and community… and in so doing contribute to the betterment of themselves...". We have been successful in providing service here at SUNY Oneonta. We have volunteered in many On- Campus events for example; The Halloween Carnival, many kids and parents from around town came to participate in trick or treating events on campus. Our job was to play carnival games with the kids, one of the games involved throwing a soft ball at a stack of cups, when they were done playing we would give them candy. We love giving to our community. Another event we participated in was the Mindful Mile and Fight Hunger 5k, all proceeds from the event was donated to the St. James' Lord's Table in Oneonta, NY and the Mohawk Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross for the Hurricane Harvey Relief Fund. Some of us volunteered to set up before the event and some of us ran in the race. It was an enjoyable time. 

Not only have we participated and volunteered in events, we also have raised money for charities. Our most successful event this semester has been the event "Pie an AGO or Kappa Sigma" Community service chairs Rachel from Alpha Kappa phi and Charlie from Kappa Sigma teamed up to host this event. Members from our organizations volunteered to get pied for a good cause! All proceeds were donated to the Breast Cancer Awareness Charity. Raising about 110 dollars. We will continue to provide service at Oneonta and be part of this wonderful community.

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