Greek Week 2011

Spending money on Jail and Bail, signing in every day, attending all events and cheering for Olympic Day can make for a jam-packed week for any member of the Greek community, but Greek Week isn’t just any week for the Greeks.

Greek Week is the week of the spring semester for Greek students. It’s a week full of competition to see which sorority and fraternity will make it out on top. Greek Week is also a large fundraiser and all of the proceeds from the week go to United Cerebral Palsy, affectionately known as, UCP.

“Greek Week [Executive Board] is different than just being a member of a fraternity because you can really step back from the heat of competition to see all of the hard work each organization puts forth to win each event and raise money for United Cerebral Palsy,” said Junior Steve Frederico, Philanthropy Co-Chair. “It was very inspiring to witness the Greek community coming together for this great cause.”

Greek Week is an event that takes months of planning. The two co-chairs, Matt Cullingham and Cassie Glenn, have been planning Greek Week for almost a year. The week is split up into different events: the blood drive, Greek God and Goddess Pageant, O-Cheer, Jail and Bail and Olympic Day. The theme for this year is Time Warp.

“We thought it [Time Warp] would be a fun way to cover a lot of different time periods and interests of the Greek community,” said Senior Cassie Glenn.

In addition to the two co-chairs, Greek Week has an executive board of 18 members who unaffiliated from their Greek organization in order to raise money for UCP and make sure the week runs smoothly.

“I think Greek Week is more about being affiliated in the Greek community in general, rather than in a particular organization,” said Alex Fruin, O-Cheer co-chair. “So while it was somewhat hard to see how much fun my sorority was having going all out, I felt more aware of the UM Greek community as a whole than I've felt in my three and a half years at this school.”

Greek Week is about coming together as a community, and that is shown with the great turnout at O-Cheer, one of the more popular Greek Week events.

“My favorite event about Greek Week is definitely O-Cheer, but specifically, I love the Chaos dance that goes on every year before the other organizations perform,” said Junior Allison Bobzin, a member of Delta Delta Delta. “Especially this year, it was so exciting to see the organizations come together. It gives such a bigger sense to the Greek Community. During each O-Cheer, I love seeing my friends in other organizations having fun and showing off their organization's swag.”

Greek Week is an event that takes lots of planning and can offer great personal rewards for the members of the Greek community. The winners of Greek Week, Beta Theta Pi and Delta Phi Epsilon, as well as all of the competitors, came together for the week and helped raise money for a great cause.



Sidebar:

Opening Ceremonies- Feburary 27th. This event was the official kick-off to Greek Week. There was a roll call and each organization had a member run in the opening ceremonies dressed in 20s attire. The costume winners were Marissa Zerbo, Alpha Delta Pi and Stephen Buckley, Beta Theta Pi.

Blood Drive- Feburary 28th- March 3rd. The blood drive consisted of three days with the make-up day on Thursday. The winners of this event were Delta Phi Epsilon for the sororities and Beta Theta Pi tied with Delta Lambda Phi for the fraternities.

Jail and Bail- March 1st. This event is on the Rock and each organization puts up one member to be jailed not permitting to leave their chair, and they are in costume. The sorority and fraternity who has the most positive tickets, each tickets, positive and negative, raise money for UCP, are free to go, bailed, first. The winners were Delta Phi Epsilon and Beta Theta Pi.

Greek God and Goddess Pageant- March 2nd. This event is where the Greek organizations can showcase a talented member. Each organization has one member be their representative and the pageant is judged on resume, question and answer, and talent. The winners for this event were Marissa Zerbo, Alpha Delta Pi and Elias Hionides, Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

Organized Cheer- March 4th. One of the highlights of Greek Week, this event is where each organization creates a 6 and a half minute skit about their randomly chosen theme. The O-Cheer theme for this year was 80s TV shows and movies. The winners of this event were Zeta Tau Alpha and Beta Theta Pi.

Olympic Day- March 5th. This day is an all-day event in which organizations compete in athletic events. The events include trivia, arm wrestling, a relay race, tug-of-war, and dodgeball. The winners of this event were Kappa Kappa Gamma and Beta Theta Pi.

Closing Ceremonies- March 5th. This event starts an hour after Olympic Day concludes and this is where the winners are announce for Blood Drive, O-Cheer, Olympic Day and the overall winners. The 2011 champs are Delta Phi Epsilon and Beta Theta Pi.



This story was written for the 2011 Ibis Yearbook, the yearbook will be printed and distributed in the Fall 2011 semester.