Pi Phi Gives Back and Welcomes New Angels!

Earlier this month, the sisters of VA Zeta Pi Beta Phi joined with the rest of the Greek community in a day of service called "Greeks Giving Back." Everyone is divided into groups within their chapter and then they go and help out in the community. Groups rake leaves, trim hedges, wash windows, etc. It was a great opportunity to get to know community members and it is great to help out the great community that supports Virginia Tech. All of the women had so much fun working on projects and working together at "Greeks Giving Back," it is definitely one of the events that the Pi Phis look forward to every autumn.

Pi Phi sisters at Greeks Giving Back! 

A bunch of sisters from Pi Beta Phi have already started to get ready for Relay For Life, which takes place in the spring. Many of our women are on exec for Relay and we are so very proud of them! As group, many of our sisters went together to Lia's downtown to participate in the VT Relay Hair Dye Fundraiser at Lia's Hairstyling! Sisters are loving having a pink strand of hair and supporting a great cause!

Pi Beta Phi is happy to welcome six new girls to Pi Phi as a part of our Fall '12 pledge class! Pi Phi couldn't be happier to have six more amazing women join our sisterhood and we are counting down the days until we can finally call them our sisters for life!

Pi Beta Phi's newest angels! 

Hiking, Hunting, and Pumpkin Picking with Alpha Delta Pi

October has shaped up to be a busy month for the sisters of Alpha Delta Pi. After finishing up Safari Hunt and achieving record results, sisters dedicated their time to expanding Greek relations and participating in other philanthropy events.

While the weekdays were dedicated to schoolwork and other philanthropic events, the weekends were filled with sisterhood bonding activities.

A few sisters made the trek to the top of McAfee’s Knob on October 12 along with some members of the newly formed Women’s Health and Fitness Club of Virginia Tech. The weather was picture perfect, sisters couldn’t help but “throw their diamonds” at the top.

The four-pointed diamond is a symbol of Alpha Delta Pi's sisterhood. 

On October 20, sisters celebrated the beginning of duck hunting season with their Mallard Ball date party, a longtime tradition of Alpha Delta Pi. Sisters and their dates dressed in their best hunting camouflage, bright orange, and danced the night away.

Sisters displayed their creativity with handmade camouflage dresses and bows. 

In honor of the fall season, sisters went to the Sinkland Farms pumpkin patch on October 21 to get in the holiday spirit. The day was ideal for pumpkin picking.

Sisterhood bonding at Sinkland Farms. 

Sisters also look forward to the upcoming weekend, where they plan to meet and bond with their sisters at the Longwood University chapter. The girls plan to go pumpkin picking, eat lunch together at the house, and bake pumpkin-themed goodies. Sisters could not be more excited to have the opportunity to meet Alpha Delta Pi’s from nearby chapters.

In the upcoming weeks, sisters look forward to further expanding their Greek relations and having a blast with other sororities and fraternities on campus through participating in other philanthropies.

Zeta Tau Alpha Is Giving Back

In the first few weeks of the Month of October the sisters of Zeta Tau Alpha were busy giving back. October is known as National Breast Cancer Awareness and Education month and Zeta Tau Alpha at Virginia Tech took it in to their own hands to spread awareness. The sisters also participated in Greeks Giving Back and helped out those in the community.

Greeks Giving Back was an event put on by the Greek community at Virginia Tech. The sisters were given different locations where they would have to do a task to help make someone else’s life a little easier. Some sisters helped plant trees at Smithfield Plantation, while others traveled around Blacksburg assisting with yard work and fall time cleaning. We all enjoyed meeting the residents of the wonderful community of Blacksburg!

As October went into full swing, the sisters started getting involved in our philanthropy, that deals with Breast Cancer Awareness and Education. Frosty Parrot has held a fundraiser night every Thursday of October and will continue to donate to Breast Cancer Awareness every Thursday until the end of the month. We had our first annual Grand Zlam, a four-day philanthropy event that fraternities and sororities were able to participate in. This was our first time switching from our regular springtime philanthropy.We started off with passing out ribbons at three different locations on campus. By the end of the four days almost everybody on campus had a pink ribbon!

The other parts of Grand Zlam included a letter writing campaign, a fundraising night at D.P Dough’s, and a kickball game. Fraternities came out to compete in a childhood game of kickball and to support our cause for Breast Cancer Awareness. With some funny outfits and intense games, the sisters of Zeta Tau Alpha had a great time raising awareness and money for our philanthropy!

    Sisters at Greeks Giving Back

One of the booths Zeta Tau Alpha had to raise awareness and money for Breast Cancer

Old Dogs, New Tricks

Delta Gamma has been busy this fall! May it be with our annual dog walk with Lions Club of Blacksburg or celebrating our “honorary” Delta Gamma member’s birthday, Louise at her favorite restaurant. Without a doubt, this semester has been filled with activities to raise support and awareness for Delta Gamma’s philanthropy – service for sight.

Earlier this month, Delta Gamma participated in the annual dogs walk hosted by the Lions Club here in Blacksburg, Virginia. The Lion’s Club is an international program with a chapter in Blacksburg that is known for working to end preventable blindness and helps with a variety of projects important to the community. The annual dog walk that Delta Gamma participates in is an example of a community project that the Lion’s Club puts on. All chapter women join the Lion’s Club in a walk around Blacksburg with dogs that assist the blind in their every day activities, along side learning about the benefits of seeing-eye dogs.

Every year through participation of the dog walk with Lion’s Club Delta Gamma manages to learn something new about the community we strive to serve. The chapter women really enjoy understanding how their efforts actually help individuals with blindness.

This semester, Delta Gamma also celebrated Louise’s birthday at her favorite restaurant Home Place. Louise is an individual very close to Delta Rho, Delta Gamma’s heart as our chapter has had a close relationships with her for years now. Louise is blind and lives in Christiansburg, and helps all the chapter members of Delta Rho understand the difficulties of being blind and what really helps and assists their living. We were absolutely honored to be there with her during her celebration and look forward to many birthday celebrations as fun to come!

Kappa Konnection

One of our biggest problems has always been keeping our alumni informed of Kappa’s goings-on at Virginia Tech.

As the daughter of one of the Zeta Mu chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma’s founding members, Sophomore Leigh Mathewes had a solution to our problem.  She was recently elected our Alumni chair and decided the best way to communicate with our alumni was a blog.

Now with 32 followers and growing, the Zeta Mu Kappa Konnection blog keeps all of our alumni, from 1985 to 2012, in the know.

Leigh and new blogger, Natalie Montequin, update the blog a few times a month with every major event we participate in the New River Valley, Virginia Tech, and Greek community and Kappa news. 

Any and all of our alumni are welcome to submit a post or submit their current information and what’s going on in their life to the blog. We hope to connect alumni with other alumni and current sisters!

Check out our blog at http://zmkappakonnection.wordpress.com/

Roar for Alpha Delta Pi

Alpha Delta Pi kicked off its annual fall philanthropy, Safari Hunt, October 2-4. All proceeds for Safari Hunt went to Alpha Delta Pi’s international philanthropy, Ronald McDonald House.

On the first day, sisters ran up and down the Drill Field in a brand new event this year called Diamond Dash. Participants donated money; and depending on the amount they donated, sisters ran a specific distance. Larger donations merited longer distances. Many of the participants ran along with a sister, or wore their Safari Hunt shirt for extra points. The dreary weather didn’t stop Greek organizations from taking a break from classes to participate; donations from Diamond Dash raised over $2,000 alone.

Despite the dreary weather, Diamond Dash had a fantastic turnout. Sisters enjoyed spending the day on the Drillfield. 

 Teams also created original music videos to submit Tuesday night. The videos were judged based on various criteria, and sisters had a lot of fun watching the creativity and dedication to their philanthropy.

The next day, participating sororities and fraternities headed to Jimmy John’s for a percentage day. 10% of the proceeds from this day went to Ronald McDonald House, and the line stretched outside the restaurant the entire day. Sisters set up a table outside to collect receipts, and ask participants to guess how many can tabs were in a jar on the table. This day also held a surprise for teams, as eight lions were hidden around campus for teams to find for extra points.

Sisters spent the day at a table set up outside Jimmy John's, where participating sororities and fraternities dropped off their meal receipts, and guessed the amount of can tabs in the jar. 

 Alpha Delta Pi rounded out Safari Hunt with field games on the last day. Teams dressed according to a decided theme and ran through an obstacle course, played tug of war, and participated in a banana-eating contest.

Throughout the week, participants gained points by “roaring” at sisters they saw around campus. The week was an incredible success for sisters; not only in terms of money raised for Ronald McDonald House, but in growing and further deepening their sisterhood.  

Gamma Phi Beta's Crescent Classic!

Sisters at Camp Gamma Phi!

The week of September 24th, the lovely ladies of Gamma Phi Beta threw their 2nd Annual Crescent Classic here at Virginia Tech!

Crescent Classic was a three day event, in which 12 teams participated.  The philanthropy is thrown to support Girls on the Run and Campfire USA, organizations that focus on building strong girls.

The opening event was Monday night and was called Camp Gamma Phi, where the teams were able to participate in camp-like activities.  The activities included sleeping bag relay races, a corn-hole toss competition, a smore-stacking competition, and finally a tent pitching competition.  Tuesday night was Gamma Phi Live in the GLC on campus, where each team participated in a skit that was to be judged by members of the Virginia Tech basketball team.  On Wednesday the 26th, the final competition, Moonball, was held.  Moonball is a glow in the dark volleyball tournament.  The volleyball nets were strung with lights, the volleyballs were painted in glow in the dark paint, and all of the sisters were wearing neon and decked out in glow sticks.

Trying to detangle lights at Moonball!

The Thursday night after Crescent Classic, the sisters of Gamma Phi Beta had a sisterhood sleepover at the house to relax after a week of philanthropy and to celebrate a successful Crescent Classic.  Bigs made "sleepover baskets" for their littles and everyone enjoyed a night in with the sisters.   Overall, $2,000 was raised to support Girls on the Run and Campfire USA.  The teams had a great time and the sisters of Gamma Phi Beta had a ton of fun cheering on the participants!

The next two weeks, the sisters of Gamma Phi Beta are busy at work to prepare for Homecoming by supporting their sister Alex Mellen in her run for Homecoming Queen!!!! "With a name like Mellen, it's gotta be good"!!