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Philanthropy Chair |
Alpha Tau Omega has an ever-evolving philanthropy program; not only participating in other philanthropies, but also in putting on our own. This school year we put on two major philanthropies, Homeless for Hunger and the Wildcat Variety Show. Both were extremely successful not only in raising funds for selected charities but also by standards of participation from other houses. The second annual Homeless for Hunger was our major fall philanthropy. It was an event where six teams of five to seven participants camped out on sponsoring sororities front lawns for a period of one week. Thirty-six participants spent over one hundred hours homeless. They slept in cardboard houses that they built at the beginning of the week. The participants were not allowed to go home for the entire week. They were members of Alpha Tau Omega as well as members of Chi Omega, Alpha Delta Pi, Alpha Chi Omega, Alpha Xi Delta, Delta Delta Delta, and Kappa Alpha Theta. The sororities that sponsored the event each donated one hundred dollars, as well as meals for the participants throughout the week. The focus of this philanthropy is to raise awareness of the community to the homeless situation in Manhattan. We were able to raise well over a thousand dollars by selling t-shirts and finding businesses to sponsor the event. H4H took place shortly after September eleventh so most businesses charity budgets were exhausted due to donations given toward relief funds. Due to that fact fundraising was a difficult task. But we considered the philanthropy to be an extreme success.
Our major spring philanthropy this year was our sixth annual Wildcat Variety Show. The Wildcat Variety Show is a unique philanthropy in a few different ways. First of all it is probably the biggest philanthropy on campus in both funds raised as well as number of participants. It is the philanthropy that everyone looks forward to every year. Almost every Greek organization on campus together for one night of fun and entertainment. This year was no different than years passed. It is also unique because it is put on by ATO and Pi-Phi the largest fraternity and the largest sorority on campus. This enables us to have large numbers working toward making Variety Show the best that it can be. The members of ATO split into groups of coaches for the Sorority teams. And the Pi-Phi's split up into coaches for the fraternity teams. The event took place at McCain auditorium and was nearly sold out by Greeks and members of the community. For additional entertainment, two comedians from Kansas City were the MC's and the Classy Cats performed at the beginning and the end of the show. Each team of up to twenty participants and coaches put on a seven-minute skit of different sorts. The theme this year was that "80's show". The main engine for fundraising is t-shirt sales. We were able to sell nearly twelve hundred t-shirts this year, more than any year past. It was much easier finding businesses to sponsor the Variety Show because of its name recognition. Businesses know what the Variety Show is and want to be associated with it. Through donations, t-shirt sales and ticket sales we were able to raise nearly fifteen thousand dollars. The money raised was divided and donated to a few different charities including the Juvenile Diabetes Fund, The American Cancer Society, Dream Factory, and the Arrowmont School of Arts and Sciences. It's really impossible to gauge the thousands of hours and amount of energy participants applied towards producing the Wildcat Variety Show. They practice their skits for weeks, and build elaborate props. All eighty-three live-in members of ATO participate in Wildcat Variety Show, by either being a coach or helping produce the show. Another reason why Variety show is such a unique philanthropy is because the coaches spend a large amount of time with Greeks they possibly don't know. It's a great way to bring Greeks together and make new friends that most would have probably never met. Most philanthropies are one day or one afternoon, variety show is something that requires weeks of preparation. It's a great vehicle to bring Greeks together. We consider the sixth annual Variety show to have been a huge success, raising more money than ever before.
These two philanthropies are becoming very well established in the Greek community at K-State. Every year we try to improve each of them by finding new ways to raise money and recruit participants. In the future I can see these events only getting bigger and better. We are now planning a philanthropy with Colbert Hills Golf Club for next fall. It is going to be a million-dollar hole-in-one contest. We are very excited to see what we can do with that.
ATO's also love participating in other Greek organization's philanthropies. This school year we have participated in a number of them. We entered three teams in Sigma Kappa's Mud Bowl. We entered a team in both Kappas' Earthball, and G-Phi's Dodge for a cause. We sponsored KD's golf tournament, as well as Pi-Phi's Miracle Mile. We are participating in AZD's Greek Games, and AD-Pi's Softball Classic. It can be tough to decide which philanthropies to participate in because of budget restraints but we try and participate in every one that we can.
ATO's also like to get involved in off-campus organizations to participate in their philanthropies. For example ATO's are participating in American Cancer Societies Relay-4-Life, and the March of Dimes walk. This is one of the ways ATO's through philanthropy programming stay involved with the community.