The Greek Week committee donated more than $6,000 in checks and canned food to local organizations at the end of University Union (UU) Hour May 3.
President of the Greek Week executive board and mathematics junior Sarah Ortiz and Student Life and Leadership Director Diego Silva presented $1,600 to the Miracle Mile for Kids, $2,000 to Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo County, $1,800 to the Lucia Mar Unified School District and $600 to the Maxine Lewis Homeless Shelter.
All of the money was raised during Greek Week events last month, such as the lip-sync and doughnut eating competitions, a fundraiser with The Habit Burger Grill and a canned food contest.
Approximately 1,800 cans of food were collected during the canned food contest and donated to the San Luis Obispo Food Bank.
“It was a great, successful Greek Week,” Silva said. “We raised more this year than last year and superseded our goals.”
Silva said the most rewarding events during Greek Week were the ones where students were able to interact with kids.
Each organization expressed its gratitude to Cal Poly’s greek life as they joined the representatives onstage, and Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo County even presented a decorated canvas to Silva to thank the students who participated.
“It’s really neat to know we raised this much money,” Ortiz said. “It feels really, really good to know that greeks supported these organizations.”
Interfraternity Council director of public relations and agricultural business sophomore Jason Colombini, said he was thrilled about the success of Greek Week.
“I expected a lot, but I did not expect it to be this great,” Colombini said. “I’m really excited about it.”
During Greek Week, approximately 30 fraternities and sororities came together in a week of games, sports, philanthropy and team bonding.
Silva said in consideration of the Delta Sigma Phi and Sigma Pi fraternity investigations that happened before and during Greek Week, this success is “a rejuvenator for sure.”
“The fruits of our labor were showed today,” Silva said, “and everyone feels more accomplished.”
Good for them. Really, they did a good thing.
But shame on the mustang daily for publishing this useless article. After reading all of the apologies you have made to the greek system after they complain about biased reporting. SACK UP, its obvious this is just an attempt to make amends.
but $6,000? Thats it? One week of “philanthropic work” and thats all they have to show?
Correct me if im wrong but If there are roughly 2200 members in our greek community, so if they each were to donate just $3 they would’ve raised about $6600?
Maybe next time they should consider dipping a little deeper into the alcohol budget?
Philanthropic work my ass
Qwerty,
Did you not get a bid?
Sincerely,
Every fraternity on campus
And I still cry myself to sleep because of it
Perhaps the Greek community could have raised more, but this article is intended to celebrate the amount that was actually raised. And while $6,000 may not seem like a huge amount, I think it’s extremely important to note that it is still a TERRIFIC contribution to our community – EVERY little bit helps!!!
Additionally, raising money is not the only way in which the Greek community gave back during this week. Many of these men and women donated their time and energy by doing community service.
I also think you should look at how much each chapter raises individually to give money to their philanthropies of choice before you mock the Greek community’s philanthropic acts.
Just to leave you with some statistics:
– As undergraduates, Greeks raise approximately $7 million per year for charities.
– As undergraduates, Greeks give approximately 850,000 volunteer hours per year
http://www.whygogreek.com/stats.html
In conclusion, QWERTY, shame on you for mocking this philanthropic contribution to our community. Voicing your opinion about how the Mustang Daily conducts itself is respectable, but to insult and minimize a philanthropic act of any kind is immature and pointless. If you’d like to see a change, get involved and make a difference.
I believe the Mustang Daily will agree with me on one thing, the enthusiasm and conversation that comes about each time something negative is said about the Greek system is unparalleled. It is truly a shame that no other topic or current event on our campus garners such attention.
With that said, I agree with you 100% that every little bit of what was donated, along with the hours spent volunteering, went to good use.The point of my argument was that if you would like other students to have a greater appreciation and understanding of the services and contributions made by the greek community, don’t make it look like you’re doing the bare minimum and then flaunt yourselves as philanthropic gods. You are not the only group on campus who donate their time and money to the school, and to the community.
I followed your link and the statistics you presented only add strength to my argument.You failed to mention that there are 400,000 active members which equates to a whopping $17.50 raised per person, and 2.13 hours volunteered per person, per year. To put this in perspective, the United States national per resident average is roughly 34 hours per year spent volunteering , and about 130 hours per person when only counting active volunteers (http://www.volunteeringinamerica.gov/national).
While your efforts and services are greatly appreciated, the fact that as a group you pride yourselves over what seems to be nothing more than the bare minimum truly amazes me. I’m aware the philanthropic work of some groups may be more than others, but If a positive view of greek life is what you desire then don’t try and portray your (on average) minimal philanthropic work as some sort of saintly act and assume the average student doesn’t do the same for their community.
Qwerty my man. I’m going to make a bold prediction and assume during Greek week you did not donate a single dollar to charity on your own time. I don’t see how this is a useless article. It reported the facts as they were and bring to light a more balanced view of Greek life. It’s a shame you were blackballed during rush or else you could’ve done some good for the community during this week.
Actually I wear cargo “shants”
Sorry, but not everyone wants to be a part of the Greek system. Maybe if you contributed some of your dues to charity instead of paying for kegs and Dixie cups, I would have some sympathy.
Also, what have you done for the community recently?
I play my guitar once a week to a group of deaf children and just the other day I donated my blender to a homeless man outside of the 7-11.