Tau Kappa Epsilon, the newest fraternity on campus, established in January 2011, held their first theme week where they teamed up with other sororities and fraternities to raise money for St. Jude’s Children Research Hospital. TKE’s Greek Olympiad was the theme agreed upon, which included a variety of games and events centered on the Ancient Greek Olympics with a modern twist.
“We wanted to choose an event that would be interesting, have broad appeal and would make people want to participate,” said sophomore member of TKE and international business major Michael Paskach.
TKE’s theme week was Oct. 14 to Oct. 17. All of the events took place on Pepin Field. On Tuesday, they kicked off theme week with the opening ceremony where all of the organizations ran around the track with their Greek flags and banners in order to win the spirit award. They also had Capture the Flag, where TKE hid several flags around campus. The organization that found the greatest amount of flags won.
“My favorite moment was during capture the flag when girls literally jumped fences to win the gold. It was hilarious,” Paskach said.
The second day of the event consisted of two games: Protect Your Base and the Dizzy Base Race. Protect Your Base required the organizations to get balls into the other team’s garbage bin and keep them out of yours. The Dizzy Base Race had students spin around a baseball bat 10 times and then attempt to run to the other side and grab a flag in a relay.
On the final day of TKE’s Greek Olympiad, they played Garbage Pong. In this game, each team had six garbage cans. In order to win, a team had to eliminate all of the opposing team’s cans, and a can could only be removed if one of the opponents succeeded in throwing a soccer ball into one of them. The first team to remove all of their opponents garbage cans won.
“Out of all of the events I really liked garbage pong. It was a creative game that was a lot of fun to play,” said Allegra Mirrione, a freshman in Delta Zeta and secondary education major.
The theme week came to an exciting close when both Delta Zeta and Alpha Chi Omega finished with the same number of medals. Since there was a tie, one representative from each sorority came forward to participate in a crucial game of rock, paper, scissors to ultimately determine the winner. After three wins, Alpha Chi Omega won the gold.
Students from several different Greek organizations were very impressed with the turnout and the amount of money they raised for St. Jude’s. At the end of the week, the money from shirt sales, team sign-ups and penny wars, added up to over $500.
“Not only did the friendly competition fuel the events, but it allowed the sororities to unite for a great cause,” said Emily Schonaerts, a sophomore and forensic science major. “The work that was devoted to this theme week was not ignored, and the men of TKE should all be proud of this great accomplishment.”
David Bowers, a senior criminology major and president of TKE, commented on the fundraising goals for TKE as an organization..
“We are actively committed to our philanthropy and put raising money for St. Jude’s ahead of everything we do as a fraternity,” said Bowers. “TKE as a national organization has pledged to donate $1,000,000 to St. Jude’s over the last two years, and we are halfway there.”
New members of the fraternity were also very proud to be a part of TKE’s first theme week.
“Theme week has been a wonderful experience especially as a new member. It’s wonderful to see all of the Greek community come out together to support causes like St. Jude’s,” said Luke Crawford, a freshman and forensic science major. “I’m really grateful not only to be a member of this fraternity but to have been able to be a part of our first theme week.”