Article by: Makenna Kemp, Contributing Writer, Photos courtesy of AOII Instagram

The last week of February, the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority had their semi-annual philanthropy week where they raised money for Camp MASH, a camp in Mobile for kids with Arthritis. As anyone in a Greek organization will tell you, the best part of the semester is contributing to philanthropy weeks, with the participation from Greek organizations becoming very competitive for gaining points, which earn you bragging rights on Greek Row. This semester, AOII’s philanthropy week consisted of a dirty soda bar on Monday, a fundraiser at Texas Roadhouse on Tuesday, Capture an AOII on Wednesday, Pie a Panda on Thursday, Greeks Go Blue on Friday, and the main event, Alpha Male on Saturday. 

On Monday, February 2, AOII had a dirty soda station set up in the student center mall. The station had sodas such as Sprite, Coke, Dr Pepper, as well as syrups and fruits to spice up any drink purchased. The running price for one of these sodas was $3, all of the profits going to their philanthropic focus. Along with the soda bar, they also had a competition on Instagram where they posted the contestants for Alpha male and the organization with the most comments got points for participation. In the end, Sigma Chi ended up taking the win but following very close behind was Alpha Gamma Delta with over 30 thousand comments!

On Tuesday, February 3, they collaborated with the Texas Roadhouse located on Airport Blvd. to help organizations get points. If you were to dine at Texas Roadhouse and wanted to participate, you had to notify your server that you were with a Greek organization, to which they would mark it down and that organization would get credit for your purchase. The next day,Wednesday, February 4, was Capture an AOII. For this, every sister had a blue bandana that they tied to their backpack. Those participating would take their flag and post a picture of it to their Instagram page for points. Instead of it being a “capture the flag” it was more of a seeking game! Students had fun seeing. Students had fun seeing everyone posting and seeing people run around trying to find someone who still had their bandana. 

On Thursday, February 6 at the student center amphitheater, girls were pied in the face for a $2-$5 donation. There were timeslots for the girls participating and Greek organizations were encouraged to attend this event and pie a panda! On Friday, February 7, we saw an overwhelming support for “Greeks Go Blue,” where students showed their support for AOII by dressing in blue and posting it on their stories. Blue is the color for juvenile arthritis, so they wanted others to show their support for children with arthritis by wearing this color and encouraging awareness for the cause.

On Saturday, February 8, the main event called “Alpha Male” was hosted in the student center ballroom. One man was chosen to be a representative of each organization while being coached by a girl from AOII to give their best performance. Lily Grace Brockman, the coach for Alpha Gamma Delta’s Alpha Male Ari Montano, stated “One of the best parts of philanthropy week was getting to step out of my own circle. I got to represent Alpha Gamma Delta and build something fun together. Watching the guy I coached gain confidence along the way made it even more meaningful.” They competed with each other by expressing their talents such as singing and dancing. It even included a very compelling piano performance from a member of SAE as well as including their many attributes that they believed made them the ideal “alpha male.” Those were then presented to a panel of very forgiving judges as well as the audience in attendance to vote on, which they took very seriously. In the end, the winners for the week were Chi Omega and ATO with the runner up being SAE and the overall winner being Sigma Chi! 

If you would like to show out for the upcoming philanthropy weeks, make sure to follow greek organizations on Instagram, which is the best way to stay up to date on any philanthropic causes and promotions.