A semester with Alpha Phi

What a busy, wonderful semester it has been for Alpha Phi. On September 21, the sisters of Alpha Phi held their annual Red Dress Gala. Parents came down, watched a football game, attended a brunch, and went to the Gala. There was a silent auction table where the parents and sisters placed their bids on donated items. Alpha Phi raised $10,045 to go toward their philanthropy. The night was beautiful with every sister sporting her favorite red dress. It was an event filled with dresses to die for and a cause to live for. The families enjoyed a nice dinner, meeting all of the sisters, and showing their moves off on the dance floor. 

Another great celebration for Alpha Phi was our very own sister Christine Terminello running for and winning Homecoming Queen. Every sister fully supported “Christine for Queen”, and we had a wonderful time campaigning. Booths were frequently held around campus with lots of free goodies that were given away. Walking in the Homecoming parade is an experience that every Alpha Phi sister will fondly remember. Some of us even got to ride on top of a fire truck! When the Homecoming football game finally came, every sister waited anxiously to hear the announcement. The sisters of Alpha Phi gathered together in the North end zone anxiously waiting for the announcement. When the Homecoming Queen was announced to be Christine, Alpha Phi sisters jumped up and down screaming with excitement. We are so thankful to have Christine as our sister and are excited to see what the future holds for her!

Alpha Phi wishes you good luck with finals and Happy Holidays to all!

Alpha Phi’s Senior Send-off

On April 24^th, Alpha Phi hosted a banquet to honor our amazing seniors. The event was put on by our newest members at Poor Billy’s Seafood Restaurant. At the banquet, all the seniors were read letters written by their families from back home. We also watched a slideshow and enjoyed spending time together and celebrating all of Spring 09’s accomplishments within Alpha Phi.

Alpha Phi has been so lucky to have all of our seniors in this chapter for the past three years. Each one of you has made a lasting impact on Alpha Phi, and we know you will all go on to do great things!

“I’ve heard it said

That people come into our lives for a reason

Bringing something we must learn

And we are led

To those who help us most to grow

If we let them

And we help them in return

Well, I don’t know if I believe that’s true

But I know I’m who I am today

Because I knew you…”

Alpha Phi's Cardiac Arrest

Two weeks ago, Alpha Phi hosted its annual Spring philanthropy, Keep The Beat Week. To spice things up, we added a new event this year called “Cardiac Arrest”. On Tuesday, the sisters of Alpha Phi set up a jail cell on campus. Each organization participating in our philanthropy was instructed to send one member to be the “cell-mate” and collect bail for their organization.

Just about every organization participating collected well over their allotted bail, so it was a huge success for Alpha Phi! It was also so fun to see students that were walking on campus stop by our jail cell to donate money to their favorite organization.

By the end of the week, Alpha Phi raised over $6,500 for the Alpha Phi Foundation, and we look forward to our Fall philanthropy, Red Dress Gala, in September. 

Love and AOE

 

On Saturday, March 17^th Alpha Phi initiated 52 new sisters into the Eta Omicron chapter. After attending many new member workshops, meetings, and speakers, the Spring 12 class was ready to be initiated. We all woke up early in the morning and headed to the War Memorial Chapel on campus. Every girl was dressed in white, and it was a beautiful, sunny day for Initiation.

After the ceremony, Alpha Phi families went to brunch together and welcomed in their newest (official) sisters. It was like Big/Little Reveal all over again, but better! We are so excited to have these wonderful young women represent Alpha Phi during their time here at Virginia Tech and for the rest of their lives. Congratulations, Spring 12!

Alpha Phi says "Sisterhood is..."

Sisterhood is…BIG SIS REVEAL!! On Saturday morning, all of the families woke up bright and early to wrap their cars and hide inside them, waiting for their newest additions. At 10am, the new members were released into a sea of wrapped cars, with only a key in hand and a t-shirt on their backs. They ran around the Oak Lane parking lot trying to find their family’s car a midst horns honking and families screaming. Once the littles were finally united with their bigs (and gbigs/ggbigs), the families spent the entire day together.

Sisterhood is…APHIESTA!! That night was Aphiesta, our favorite date party of the year. It was held at 622 North and all of the families arrived together with their newest littles. We danced the night away and had an amazing time!

Sisterhood is…REGIONAL CONFERENCE!! Rewind to last weekend. Alpha Phi’s Executive Council drove out to Nashville, TN for the Southeast and South Central Regional Conference. They learned a lot about chapter management and are so excited to implement new strategies in every department of the chapter. The highlight for Exec at conference was sitting with Alpha Phi’s International President for lunch and receiving an award for Excellence in Chapter Operations and Programming!

Welcome to the Ivy League

On January 22, Alpha Phi welcomed 51 new members into the ivy league! We are so lucky to have such great girls to start of this semester with a bang. Since Bid Day, we have had a bunch of fun sisterhood activities to welcome the girls into the Eta Omicron chapter. We held a Zumba class at the house, enjoyed a D2 dinner, and even took a trip to Adventure World to go roller-skating.

This weekend Meredith Morris and Jess Bezilla, our Director of New Member Education department, hosted a new girl sleepover at the house for Spring 12 to bond even further. This is definitely every Alpha Phi’s favorite memory as a new member. The girls spent time getting to know each other by enjoying late night snacks, performing funny skits, watching House Bunny, and engaging in other bonding activities.

This past Friday, February 3, Alpha Phi celebrated National Wear Red Day in attempts to raise awareness about Cardiac Care initiatives on campus. We all took part in wearing red and Jennifer Park, Director of Philanthropy, hosted a Heart Healthy Dinner at the house that night for all the sisters. National Wear Red Day was only the start of our events for Cardiac Care awareness month. Keep an eye out for more Cardiac Care initiatives on campus throughout the month of February!

Sister Spotlight: Anna Tobia

This week Alpha Phi would like to recognize our amazing and beautiful sister, Anna Tobia. Not only has she dedicated so much of her time and service to our chapter through her position of Director of Community Service in the past, but this year she has taken on the huge role of Director of Relay For Life at Virginia Tech. Anna inspires each and every sister, as well as everyone she meets, with her passion and determination to fight back. She always has a smile on her face and a positive attitude that is simply contagious.

The amount of work Anna spends on VTRelay each day certainly does not go unnoticed! As her sisters, we are continually trying our best to support her by serving on Relay For Life Exec or Committees, being Team Captains, and raising money for Relay For Life. Alpha Phi is currently the top sorority on VTRelay’s Greek For Life, and we plan to keep it that way!

With the positive energy and encouragement that Anna displays every day, Alpha Phi is confident that this year’s Relay For Life is going to be record-breaking once again! We are so proud of you, Anna.

Alpha Phi is thankful for…

As Thanksgiving break is quickly approaching, we are taking this time to recognize all the things Alpha Phi has to be thankful for. We are thankful for our outgoing Executive Board for all of their hard work and dedication to the chapter over the course of the past year. We are also thankful for our incoming Exec, elected officers, and appointed officers for their wonderful new ideas and passion they will share with Alpha Phi this year.

On Wednesday, November 9^th Alpha Phi co-hosted a blood drive at the German Club Manor. We had a great showing, and were able to donate about thirty pints of blood to the American Red Cross. Thanks to everyone who helped out with the event by either volunteering or giving blood on Wednesday!

Alpha Phi saves lives, one heart at a time

Lastly, we are thankful for Kipps and Linkous Elementary Schools for allowing us to come in on Mondays and Tuesdays to volunteer in the classroom. We call this “Frat in the Hat”, and every week different girls in the chapter volunteer for an hour of reading, playing games, coloring, and just getting to be around the preschool kids. The teachers and students always express how much they appreciate and enjoy getting to have us each week, but we genuinely love it as much, if not more, than they do.

Megan coloring with the kids at Frat in the Hat

Have a wonderful and relaxing Thanksgiving break! And remember to take time to reflect on just what you have to be thankful for this year.

Love,

The sisters of Alpha Phi 

Alpha Phi does Halloween

The sisters of Alpha Phi have been celebrating Halloween in a few festive ways this week. On Friday, October 28^th we kicked off our Halloween weekend with Oak Lane Trick-Or-Treat. Despite the freezing rain and gloomy weather, many families and children still came out to trick-or-treat around Oak Lane. Nothing can keep kids from their candy when it comes to Halloween!

At the Alpha Phi house, we passed out candy and had a craft inside where we got to interact with the kids. We made lollipop ghosts while listening to Halloween music in the Great Room. We loved getting to see all of the Halloween costumes as the kids and families came to visit the house!

Passing out candy outside the house

Helping the kids make lollipop ghosts

Tomorrow, Monday, October 31^st, Alpha Phi will be on the Drillfield and in the Library Plaza from 10-2 handing out candy and wishing everyone a Happy Halloween. Make sure you stop by to see us (or scare us) throughout the day and get your free candy!

Happy Halloween everyone!

From the sisters of Alpha Phi 

139 Years Strong

On Monday, October 10^th Alpha Phi celebrated Founder’s Day. Alpha Phi was founded at Syracuse University in the fall of 1872 (yes, the same year as the founding of Virginia Tech). To celebrate, we performed the Alpha Phi Promise Ceremony at the end of Chapter. After the ceremony, Exec held a reception for all the sisters to enjoy, cake included! It is so interesting to think back and remember just how Alpha Phi started 139 years ago, with 10 young women who were determined to form a circle of sisterhood.

The Original 10 Sisters of Alpha Phi

In other news, Alpha Phi held a sisterhood-filled weekend this weekend! On Saturday, October 15^th we headed down to Charlotte, North Carolina for a trip to Carowinds Amusement Park for “SCarowinds”, a Halloween-themed evening. This used to be a sisterhood retreat that our chapter did every year, so we brought it back this year. It was a great time filled with screams, costumes, and other fall festivities. 

Alpha Phi at Scarowinds

On Sunday, a large group of Alpha Phis made a trip to Washington D.C. for the Walk to Defeat ALS. Every year we go to this walk to support Jessica Fuller, a Virginia Tech Alpha Phi Alumni, and her father who has been suffering from Lou Gehrig's Disease for many years. To Alpha Phi, this is more than just a few-mile trek, it’s an opportunity to bring hope to ALS patients, to raise money for a cure, and to come together with friends and family to fight for something we care about.

Alpha Phi's Red Dress Gala

Every fall the sisters of Alpha Phi host a weekend filled with football, family, and philanthropy. This year, our Parents Weekend and Red Dress Gala were held the weekend of September 16^th. Red Dress Gala is more than your typical Greek philanthropy. It is an elegant banquet, dinner, and silent auction for Alpha Phi’s sisters and their families. Although this evening is meant to be an enjoyable time with our families, the ultimate purpose of Red Dress Gala is to raise funds for the Alpha Phi Foundation. The Alpha Phi Foundation is broken into two parts: the Forget-Me-Not fund and research for Cardiac Care initiatives. This is where all of the money we raise from both Red Dress Gala and our spring semester philanthropy, Keep the Beat Week, goes.

In order to better understand what an evening at Alpha Phi’s Red Dress Gala is like let me paint the picture for you. The event was held in the large banquet room at Custom Catering. As the sisters and their families arrived, they were instructed to take a picture with their family with our letters in their red dresses. Then each family proceeded to their assigned tables to mingle and enjoy appetizers with the other Alpha Phi families. Auction items and baskets were on display around the room for everyone to take a look at and bid on throughout the night. These items ranged from jewelry pieces to a weekend at the Mountainside Villas of Massanutten Resort. 

The dinner buffet opened up about an hour or so into the evening and each table was dismissed one at a time to go get their meals. After dinner, we watched a wonderful video with pictures at Alpha Phi events throughout the year, pictures of sisters with their families, and pictures of loved ones lost due to the #1 killer, heart disease. Toward the end of the night, our Director of Philanthropy, Alli Sharper, and President, Alexandra Hoffman, made short speeches thanking everyone for attending and recognizing how important our cause was. The auction then closed and each item was announced for how much it sold for and to which family. Our grand total raised for the Alpha Phi Foundation was over $15,000 this year! This is a record-breaking amount of money that the Eta Omicron Chapter has raised, and we are so excited to present these funds to the Alpha Phi Foundation.