Fall Retreat went so well this year! I am truly blessed with an amazing group of actives. 🙂
Since this was the first time that I would actively be serving as president in front of everyone, I was suffering from a mild case of stage fright. I was so nervous about what I had to say and how I would say it… I kept trying to rehearse my lines to myself and my other EB members. I was so afraid to mess up in front of everyone… Needless to say, my fears were NOT necessary! All of the actives are so sweet and understanding; they offer me nothing but support! Once we got going, I couldn’t believe how nervous I had been… or how lucky I am to be surrounded by such beautiful young women.
Of course it was a little awkward at first- especially with all of the motions for voting and such- but once we got going, it was fine. 🙂 One of the first things that I had to tell everyone was that we did not have a chapter room yet. (At the time, I was still working out our reservation with the Student Life office.) I thought that everyone would freak out or blame me or something, but they took it very well- I was shocked! Their trust in me gave me confidence, and I thank them for that. This may seem silly to anyone who has not dealt with a large group of young people (I am thinking back to my days in church youth group), but one of the most shocking realizations of how awesome my girls are happened when the pizza was late. They didn’t complain, and when it did arrive, they formed an orderly line and got their pizza… It is truly the little things in life! 🙂
In the following two days, business continued to go very smoothly! All but one of our amendments passed. We did not raise the mimimum required service hours for active sisters to 30, it remains at 25 hours. The first few amendments that passed were not very exciting- we simply moved the officer descriptions from our constitution to our bylaws, added, “Update all service records and forms at least once per semester,” to the Service Director position description, added, “Update all membership records and forms at least once per semester. These forms should include but are not limited to our roster, contact list, and family trees,” to the Membership Director position description, and added, “She shall attempt to collect new contact information from alumnae once per semester,” to the Alumnae Liason position description. We also took out the fees of an LOA semester, because we do not charge them. Then, we voted on some exciting amendments! The first is about our drug and alcohol policy:
Change to Read: (Bylaws) Article II Conduct
Section 1) No sister shall wear the letters of Omega Phi Alpha when engaging in the consumption of alcoholic beverages or engaging in any activities in which the principles of Omega Phi Alpha are not upheld. No sister shall attend any Omega Phi Alpha function while under the influence of any alcoholic or illegal substance. No sister shall post photos on any online platform of herself while engaging in any of these prohibited activities alongside photos of anything related to or including images of OPA events, letters, or insignia.
Rationale: We are a dry sorority, and we should not associate our organization with the consumption of alcoholic beverages or any other activity that does not uphold the principles of OPA. This amendment is saying that sisters are not allowed to post pictures of themselves drinking in the same album that contains pictures of OPA activities, letters, etc.
We raised our local dues to include the cost of Retreat:
Change to Read:
Section 2) Sisters on Active Status shall pay local dues of $120 in addition to the national dues of $50.
Rationale: The update in our local dues reflects the inclusion of a $60 retreat cost. Retreat is a mandatory event that all sisters should make every possible effort to attend each semester. Therefore, retreat is a cost that all members should expect to pay as a sister of Omega Phi Alpha, but may be surprised by because it is not included in the dues that we advertise. By including the price of retreat in our dues, we do not withhold any information from potential members. I feel that this inclusion (stating that dues are $170) is more straightforward that what we are doing now (stating that dues are $110, but you also have to pay $60 for our mandatory retreat). In this way, the price does not sneak up on our members, and they will know how much they are required to pay per semester.
We also added some conditions to our honorary membership status:
Change to Read:
(Bylaws) Article III Elections Section 11) Honorary members can be nominated by members or self-nominated. She will be able to wear OPA letters, attend meetings and functions if invited by the president, and receive a copy of the Chevron.
- To become an honorary member, a sister will complete a one year provisional period in which she must show active interest in the chapter with a minimum participation in three events per semester including chapter meetings, service events, and sisterhood events. After this year long provisional period, the chapter will vote on the sister’s honorary member status. A two-third vote is required.
- If the sister is rewarded honorary member status, she must sign a contract stating that she will continue to fulfill her honorary member duties and responsibilities through her graduation date. If the sister fails to participate in a minimum of three events per semester, her honorary member status may be revoked with a two-third vote by the chapter.
- This does not include our first advisor Louise Lawson
Rationale: Right now, there is nothing in our constitution about what we expect from our honorary members after they are awarded this status. Honorary members should continue to show interest and commitment to OPA throughout their college career, just as any other sister would. This amendment ensures that we will hold our future honorary members to a high standard- worthy of the right to wear letters and associate themselves with OPA.
We included our wedding tradition in our Bylaws:
Change to Read: (Bylaws) Article VIII. Chapter Traditions.
Section 2. On the occasion of a sister’s wedding, all Omega Phi Alpha sisters in attendance may perform the following ceremony for the bride; at some point during the bride’s wedding day, her Omega Phi Alpha sisters shall form a circle around her, sing “Yellow Rose,” and present the bride with yellow roses.
We limited the number of waivers that a sister may receive:
Change to Read: (Bylaws) Article I Section 4 Clause 1. G A sister may only receive a full waiver once throughout her active semesters. In case of extreme financial hardship, she may apply for further full waivers with supporting documentation.
Rationale: Our chapter cannot afford to continually waive dues for multiple sisters each semester. There are other options available for sisters who cannot afford to pay such as payment plans, partial waivers, and LOA semesters.
Changed the responsibility of determining fundraising points and the minimum at which they may be set per semester:
Change to read: f. Attain minimum fundraising points as set by the Fundraising Chair and Treasurer and approved by the chapter at the beginning of each semester with a majority vote. Fundraising points must be set at a minimum of four points each semester. For a fundraising project to pass, it must be presented to the chapter and voted on by a majority. If a sister votes yes to a project, she is required to participate in said project.
Finally, we updated the way that we determine our sisterhood points to match the way that we determine our fundraising points:
Change to Read: g. Attend the minimum requirement of sisterhood events each semester as set by the sisterhood chair and approved by the chapter at the beginning of each semester with a majority vote. Sisterhood points must be set at a minimum of four points each semester.
I know that everyone doesn’t feel this way, but I enjoy the amendments! I think that proposing and voting on amendments is a great way for sisters to become involved in the leadership of our organization.
While business is the main purpose of Retreat, we also had some fun! Of course, we played signs, the birthday game, the egg/chicken/gorilla/elvis/enlightened game that I can’t name right now, and I painted as many nails as my sisters would let me! 😉 Oh, and of course we can not forget the annual traditions of mattress surfing down the hallways and late night truth or dare. I love my sisters SO much, and I wouldn’t trade our experiences together for anything! While this was my last Fall Retreat as an active, I didn’t let myself get sad- which means I didn’t even let myself think about it while I was there- and I hope that I will be able to return as an alum. I never want Omega Phi Alpha to leave my life! 🙂
Well, it is that time of year, and I can hardly believe it! This year has gone by so quickly; it seems like just yesterday that we attended fall retreat, and we were talking about NEXT fall retreat at chapter last night… Crazy!
I have definitely enjoyed this year, and made some awesome new friends! I love all of the Etas, especially my littles Mei Mei and Jennifer, and I am so thankful that they were able to enjoy OPA with me. 🙂 Banquet was great, and I think that it was the perfect way to finish up the year. Our sisterhood chair, Thi, did an amazing job with our fun-filled, Cinco de Mayo celebration. We did things a little bit differently this year in that we were allowed to bring guests. I brought two- my fiance, Troy, and our friend, Zack. (Troy is on the right in blue, and Zack is on the left in green.) 🙂
As a chpater, we have accomplished some amazing things this year! As of last night at our chapter meeting (and JB is still not completely done counting…) we have 2,675 service hours this semester!! For the whole year, we have 4,205 hours!!! That is SO amazing, and I am incredibly proud of everyone for all of their hard work. Many sisters received awards at banquet for “over 40 hours” and “over 50 hours.” I am proud of all of the girls who met our new 25 hour requirements, and impressed that so many doubled or almost doubled this requirement! Maybe we can raise our requirement to 30 hours per semester at fall retreat…. 😉
Over this year, I have seen our chapter grow, and I know that we are on our way to bigger and better things. We grew in number, but I also think we grew in friendship, leadership, and service. I know- corny… But I really think this is true! I thought that the chapter grew closer than it ever had during spring of last year, but I think that this spring has fostered even more frienship and sisterhood between the sisters. I can truly say that my sisters are some of my best friends!
At Banquet, I got awards for perfect attendance, over 50 service hours, and, most importantly, Miss OPA! 😀 I was so surprised and honored to be chosen for this award- it truly means the world to me! The other awards were given to Caroline, Miss Service and our future Service Director, Sydney, Miss Friendship, and Priscilla, Miss Leadership. Here we are:
Our chapter meeting last night, the last chapter of the semester, was also the time for our officer transition ceremony. I was happy that my grand-big, Liz, as well as other alums and our District TLC, Megan Johnson, could attend. This was a very special and memorable night for me because I was officially sworn in as the new Alpha Zeta President!!!!!!!!!! 😀 Tegan Y. even handed down our OPA presidential gavel- this proves I am important now. HAHA 😉
And in OPA fashion, we took TONS of pictures. 🙂 Here is the old EB and new EB together:
And the members of the new EB:
Service Director: Caroline, President: Teigan (ME!!), Sisterhood Chair: Tiffany, Secretary: Emily, Membership Director: Thi, Treasurer: Ann, and Vice President: Heather
These are some wonderful, amazing, and beautiful ladies. I absolutely cannot wait to serve on next year’s EB with them; it is truly and honor and a blessing to be chosen as next year’s president. Even though I feel like I have said it a thousand times, I will say it again… I want everyone to know that I am very excited for the new year and all of the great things to come. THANK YOU, sisters! I LOVE YOU!!
The first ever Kennesaw State University Relay for Life is right around the corner!!! (Friday, April 13th @ 7:00 pm – Saturday, April 14th @ 7:00 am) All together, we have already raised $19,327 for the American Cancer Society!!!!! I can’t believe it- we have already gotten so close to our $20,000 goal. 🙂
Omega Phi Alpha’s team is definitely doing their part- our team has raised $3,298 so far!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am SO proud of all of my sisters and the time and effort that they have already put in for this great cause. I absolutely can’t wait for the night of the event, and it is not that far away! KSU Relay for Life is THIS Friday, April 13th @ 7:00 pm on the Green on KSU’s campus.
As Omega Phi Alpha’s team captain, I have been working toward Relay for months now- there is so much to do! First, we had to vote on Relay as an official service project for the semester and work with our Service Director to decide how service hours would be earned. There are tons of opportunities for girls to earn credit for this project! Registering online at ksurelay.org and donating $10 is one hour, and each $10 increment raised on their personal fundraising page past that original $10 is one hour toward their personal hours (not our minimum required 25 hours per semester for active status). Hours could also be earned by donating other various items like signs, decorations, drinks, etc. Then, there are lots of hands-on hours to be earned! If girls registered before March 15th, they have the opportunity to earn hour-for-hour up to 12 hours. If they register between March 16th and the day of the event, they can get hour-for-hour up to 6 hours. If they do not register, they can come to the event and earn hour-for-hour with a max of 2 hours. More girls than I expected signed up for the entire 12 hours, and I am very excited to spend the entire night with them! Some of us- definitely me- will be there for MUCH longer than that as set-up for the event begins at 3:00 pm on Friday, and I will probably have to stay later on Saturday morning to clean up.
We also held a yard sale to raise money for Relay that make $630!! Yes, you read that correctly- $630!! 🙂 (Girls could receive service hours for their donations to this project.) While we received lots of great donations from sisters, the yard sale would not have been the great success that it was without the generous help and donations from Caitlin’s parents. The yard sale was at their house, they donated most of the things that we sold at the yard sale, and they were an amazing help donating their time and talents to this great cause! Thank you so much, Mr. and Mrs. Amick! 🙂
In the past couple of weeks, I have been working on getting donations for our on-site fundraiser. We have a popcorn machine and supplies from Parker’s aunt, cupcakes from the Publix bakery where Allie works, and cookies from Jillian’s mom at Cookie Chic. These are going to match our carnival theme, and they are going to be amazing!! Here is a preview:
So, getting everything finished for Relay is this week is going to be very busy! I still have to make some signs (Caroline is going to help me in TRAC on Tuesday morning), attend Bank Night on Tuesday night to turn in our team’s final money, pick up participant t-shirts for our team members who raised at least $100, and choose our campsite on the Green. I also need to purchase bags for our popcorn and face paint this week. Oh, and finalize everyone’s schedule- I have a huge spreadsheet with everyone’s task assignment color coded, individual time assignments to hand out to sisters at the event, and sign-in sheets for each station. I want everything to be as organized as possible so that things run smoothly at the event.
I will be back with more Relay info as soon as I can update.
So, I know that it has been forever since I posted to my blog, but I really want to keep this blog going! I have actually been writing posts in my head, I just haven’t made the time to sit down and write them… This will be my post to catch up on everything, and then I will try to stay up to date on everything that we do in Omega Phi Alpha. This sorority is so important to me, and I want to share my love with the world! 🙂
The last time that I posted, I was getting ready for Spring retreat. Now that retreat has come and gone, I would like to announce that my ammendment passed! After much debate and long discussion, we decided to ammend my original ammendment from 30 service hours per semester to 25 hours. The Alpha Zeta chapter of Omega Phi Alpha now requires 25 service hours!! I am incredible happy, and I think that we are headed in the right direction. We have so many amazing service projects lined up this semester, that I am sure girls will get way more than 25 service hours. After they see how easy and fun it really is, maybe they will be in support of raising it again. I am thinking of ammending again at Fall retreat, but we will see how this semester turns out first….
I also proposed that we include our local history in the information that is taught to new pledges, and this procedure change also passed!! I am very excited about this as well, because I feel that it is very important to keep the knowledge of our chapter alive. Now that we are growing, integrating the information into the things that are presented to the pledges each year will make sure that it is passed along down our family trees. During the voting, we decided that the membership director/pledge mom would decide how to incorporate the information for her pledges. 🙂 I have not started compiling the information yet, but I will have it done by the end of this semester (or the end of summer at the latest) so that we can approve it as a chapter before it is presented to our new pledge class in the fall.
At Spring Retreat this year, I am going to propose an amendment to our local constitution. This is the same amendment that has been proposed in the past, most recently by Jessica F. last year, so I asked her if she could help me with it. Here is my amendment:
“Amendment
Currently Reads
Article V. Membership
Section 1) A. Requirements
e. Participate in 20 hours of service per semester. These hours shall be earned through planned chapter service projects. It is required that a sister attends in a minimum of three service projects. Participation in an event shall include any or all of the following: project planning, project publicity, project attendance, post-project work, and contribution of necessary items to conduct the project. Service hours can not be used for reasons outside of Omega Phi Alpha until the required minimum hours have been met. Once the required hours have been met any hours exceeding the minimum required hours can be used for non- OPA reasons and will not be included in total OPA hours.
Clause 1. Full hour credit for physically involved service projects will be awarded at the discretion of the Service Director and a second Executive Board member. To earn full credit a sister must not only be physically present at the project, she must also be actively involved. In the event of the service director’s absence, she shall appoint two (2) sisters from the service committee to serve in her stead, one of whom (if possible) should be another officer (EB, CSB, etc.). Any extenuating circumstance causing a sister to not be physically able to fully participate (injury, illness, etc.) must be discussed with the Service Director prior to arrival at the project.
a. The sister can request a meeting with the CSB to discuss docked hours based on the decision of the service director and second executive board member.
Clause 2. If a sister votes “Yes” to a service project, the sister is obligated to actively participate. She will be allowed one fault per semester, after which she will be called to CSB.
Change to Read
Article V. Membership
Section 1) A. Requirements
e. Participate in 30 hours of service per semester. These hours shall be earned through planned chapter service projects. It is required that a sister attends in a minimum of three service projects. Participation in an event shall include any or all of the following: project planning, project publicity, project attendance, post-project work, and contribution of necessary items to conduct the project. Service hours can not be used for reasons outside of Omega Phi Alpha until the required minimum hours have been met. Once the required hours have been met any hours exceeding the minimum required hours can be used for non- OPA reasons and will not be included in total OPA hours.
Clause 1. Full hour credit for physically involved service projects will be awarded at the discretion of the Service Director and a second Executive Board member. To earn full credit a sister must not only be physically present at the project, she must also be actively involved. In the event of the service director’s absence, she shall appoint two (2) sisters from the service committee to serve in her stead, one of whom (if possible) should be another officer (EB, CSB, etc.). Any extenuating circumstance causing a sister to not be physically able to fully participate (injury, illness, etc.) must be discussed with the Service Director prior to arrival at the project.
a. The sister can request a meeting with the CSB to discuss docked hours based on the decision of the service director and second executive board member.
Clause 2. If a sister votes “Yes” to a service project, the sister is obligated to actively participate. She will be allowed one fault per semester, after which she will be called to CSB.
Rationale: This amendment is based on actual research that I collected from last semester. On average, each sister completed 34.7 hours of service. 91% of active sisters met the proposed requirement or were within 5 hours of reaching 30. 69% completed 30 service hours or more, and 48% completed 35 hours or more. Most of us are already meeting the 30 hour mark, and by increasing our minimum requirement, we will be showing the world our great work. Alpha Zeta is one of the chapters that requires the smallest amount of hours; most chapters of Omega Phi Alpha already require 30. Social sororities, such as Delta Phi Epsilon, require 15 hours, and Human Services majors are required to complete 20 hours. We are a service sorority!!! Let’s reflect our passion in our requirements.
Author: Teigan McIntosh”
As you can see in my rationale, most of us are already completing 30 hours of service! Personally, I take a full load of classes, I work two jobs, I have a life outside of Omega Phi Alpha, and I still complete all of my requirements. For the past two semesters, I have completed more than 30 hours of service, and it has not been hard. Because of the nature of many of our service projects, I am able to complete more than enough service hours. For example, longer projects such as Boo at the Zoo and Light the Night allow sisters to acquire multiple hours at a time. All sisters should be able to complete at least 30 hours per semester. I think that this is a very reasonable number. After all, we are a SERVICE sorority! I am not proposing this amendment or pointing any of this out because I think anyone individually has done anything wrong, I just think that as an organization, we should step it up especially since most other chapters already require 30 hours. It is time for us to increase our minimum requirements!!
Also, after working on the archiving OPA project this year, I would like to propose that we include information from the local history of the Alpha Zeta chapter in the pledge quizzes. I believe that it is important for the sisters to know their local history. Here is the email that I sent to our president, Tegan, asking her what she thinks about this idea:
“Hi, Tegan.
-Teigan”
Walking to class this morning, I saw my friend and (almost) sister, Lauren P. I was listening to my iPod, and she was on the phone, but we still acknowledged each other. We smiled, waved, and blew each other a kiss at the same time. Ok, I realize that this sounds really corny and could be possibly disturbing to some of you reading this, but in that moment I was extremely grateful to have my sisters in my life! KSU is such a big school with tens of thousands of students, and it is extremely too easy to feel lost. That is where I was at my freshman year, before I found Omega Phi Alpha. Now, I see my sisters around campus, like Lauren P., and I feel connected. It truly is the small things that make a difference in my day.
I have thoroughly enjoyed writing this blog about Omega Phi Alpha this semester, and the positive support that I have received from my sisters has made it worth my while! I want to send a big THANK YOU shout out to all of my sisters that I love so much! Thank you for supporting me and encouraging me, not just in my blog, but in everything!
Here are some of the responses to my blog that I have received from my sisters in just the past day…
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“I feel like your blog is awesome and u went above and beyond on each post but thats just me. 🙂 Are you going to keep blogging after its due? Please do!!”
“I finally got around to reading you blog and it is amazing!!!”
“Teigan!!! I am SO proud of you – I have SOOOO enjoyed reading your blog this semester 🙂 You are, without a doubt, one of the most beneficial pieces of Alpha Zeta. You have such a positive influence on your fellow sisters and your constantly upbeat demeanor is such an inspiration. Love you sweet girl!”
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Wow!! These comments meant so much to me ladies. All I know to say is THANK YOU!! Again and again, my sisters have blessed me with kind words and compliments. As Holly Getty says in her post on T.J. Sullivan‘s Hungry Leader Blog, Learn to Drink in the Compliments, “… If you can accept compliments, even for small things, you will attract more compliments. If you say positive words about the way you look or what is on your body, you will attract more positive words.” I am going to keep the chain going- positive karma leading to more positive karma and hopefully we can make the world a little bit brighter. Like this morning when I say Lauren P.- I know that the smile was still on my face after we crossed paths, and, hopefully, someone else saw my smile and they smiled as well. (Smiles are contagious, you know… You were supposed to know that already!)
Along these lines, I loved reading Talin‘s post, Laughter Is The Best Medicine. This quote spoke to me because it reminds me of our sisterhood, one big family, and I want to leave you with it to think about…
“We should learn to love each other as one big family of our world, we should learn to live and let live, we should focus our energy on laughter, the good things in life, and maybe just maybe we would hear good news on our television sets, and these newscasters would spread around goodness instead of the bad. Its been a long time I have heard any good news from these news broadcasters. Wouldn’t it be nice to see good news and more love around the world? I believe in peace and harmony and I believe that we can all make a difference one person at a time.”
The end of the semester…
Just because the semester is ending, does not mean that our service has to! Most or all of the service that we do as sisters of Omega Phi Alpha is completed through group service projects, but this is a reminder that that does not have to be the case. I am going to try to make an effort to do more service on my own, and I would like to encourage everyone else to do the same. Here is a quick list of things you can do over the break from The HandsOn Blog:
- Make artwork for a local senior center or retirement home—they will love the colorful wall decorations!
- Organize a canned food drive at home, school, neighborhood, or place of worship. Donate your collected canned goods to a local food bank or shelter.
- Donate unwanted stuffed animals to a local shelter— there are many children who would love to have an animal to snuggle with this holiday season!
- Donate your family’s holiday party leftovers to a local shelter or soup kitchen
- Gather your old clothes and shoes to donate to the Salvation Army, Goodwill, or other donation center.
- Play board games at a senior center.
- Donate your old books to your local library— there are kids dying to read your books!
- Donate your old backpack there is a child who would love to have a new friend to carry their school work in!
- Have a hot chocolate and cookie stand in your neighborhood and donate the money to your favorite cause.
- Hold a toy drive for kids in a shelter or hospital.
- Take a bag of dog or cat food to your local animal shelter.
- Pick up trash in your local park or neighborhood.
- Grow a community garden.
- Start a recycling program in your community if there is not one already.
- Plant a tree.
And the end of the Etas pledge period!!
This Saturday, December 3rd, the members of the Eta pledge class will become active sisters of Omega Phi Alpha- it is activation! I am so excited for all of the Etas, especially my littles, Mei Mei and Jennifer. They have worked so hard, and this is well earned for them. I am also excited for my big and grand-big to attend activation, and for my first activation as an active. I wish that I could say more, but it is a secret ceremony, and I can’t release any details! The Etas will just have to wait to see what we have in store for them. 🙂
Ok, I admit it….. I was channeling this song when titling this post. It is stuck in my head!
But that has nothing to do with what I am trying to talk about!! 🙂
For this year’s national president’s project, we are “Archiving OPA.” I am in the “traditions” group and, among other topics, we are working on “families.” (Hopefully now you understand where the title and the song come in… If not, it is really not important, and you are probably even better off that way!) Although this is a little outdated, here is a link to a page about our families.
So, for this project, I collected some information from my grand-big, Liz, a founding mother. Here is what she told me….
How Our Families Began
By: Teigan McIntosh, Zeta Class
Information collected from her Grand-big: Liz New, Founding Mother
The Alpha Zeta chapter of Omega Phi Alpha at Kennesaw State Univerisyt decided to create their families at the suggestion of the sisters from Nu Chapter at Georgia Tech who were instrumental in the founding of the Alpha Zeta chapter. Among them were Heather Pritchard, Amanda Harris, Chelsea Morrisey Navo, and Megan Sheppard, as well as the VP of Expansion at the time, Ginger McGarity. They thought it would be a good way for the Alpha Zeta chapter to trace their members back through the chapter as it grew and got older as well as create a tradition for the new chapter to uphold.
During August 2006, a few weeks after the colonization retreat but before the Alphas’ rush, the founding mothers formed the families at one of their chapter meetings held in the old social science building. (The families were first presented at the Alpha’s rush.) They decided that five families would be a good idea, so they wrote down all their names on slips of paper and put them into a plastic bowl. Then, they drew them out and sorted them into five piles. The matriarch for each family was decided based on which sister was closest to graduation. (Now, the matriarch of each family is determined by oldest pledge class and then graduation date, but, in the beginning, at that time we were all in the same class.
The five founding matriarchs were: Lambda – Kelly Cantrell; Chi – Allison Carder McKay; Tau – Janice Turner Perea; Gamma – Brandi Gilbert; Kappa – Annie Smith.
Tau was for Turner, Gamma was for Gilbert, and, if Liz New remembers correctly, Chi was for Carder. The rest of the families discussed the letters that they wanted and decided on something together. Again, if Liz New remembers correctly, the Lambda family traded the letter Kappa to the Kappa family because the Kappa family wanted it and the Lambdas didn’t. From there, each family brainstormed collectively and came up with our own mascots, flowers, and colors that night. Liz, a Lambda, remembers that the members of her family definitely wanted the Lambda’s to be unique, so they chose lavender and teal as their colors.
The family mascots, colors, and flowers are as follows:
- Lambda – Colors: lavender and teal; Mascot: giraffe; Flower: purple tulip
- Chi – Colors: purple and gold; Mascot: dinosaur; Flower: purple orchid
- Tau- Colors: light pink and brown; Mascot: turtle; Flower: calla lilly
- Gamma- Colors: hot pink and lime green; Mascot: teddy bear; Flower: pink gerber daisy
- Kappa- Colors: yellow and green; Mascot: Kangaroo; Flower: sunflower
As a follow-up to Light the Night, I received the nicest thank you note from Stacy! I couldn’t begin to paraphrase it, and I figured that by typing it, the words would lose some of their authenticity, so here is a scanned copy of the note…
Maybe it was an emotional day for me, but this note had me in tears. Thank you, Stacy!! Receiving this note from you really meant a lot to me, and I know that the other people you sent thank you notes to felt the same way that I did when I found it in my mailbox.
Light the Night is truly an Omega Phi Alpha memory that I will treasure always. “Why?” you might ask, “Wasn’t it just a walk?” Well, yes… It was “just” a walk, but it was SO much more than that. I loved meeting your family, especially your mom, and I was so happy that they were all able to attend this service project. The personal connection really made the project special to me, making it one of my favorites. Also, the amount of people involved and the amount of money raised by all of the teams is simply astonishing. This was in the email sent by Light the Night on November 10th:
Thanks to you we have raised over $1.2 million for blood cancer research and patient services!
Also, I am excited to do this project again next year and the next and make it an Alpha Zeta tradition! 🙂
On Sunday, October 30th, I participated in Boo at the Zoo at the Atlanta Zoo with my sisters. For this event, lots of families came out. All of the children, and some of the parents, wore Halloween costumes. Some parents even matched the children- I saw one family of Supermans and another where the mom and daughter were both dressed up as chickens. They had the zoo decorated with Halloween decorations, both in and out of the animals’ habitats. There were pumpkins, spiderwebs, and ghosts hung throughout the park.
I dressed up as the tooth fairy! (This was also my costume for our Halloween chapter the week before.) I wore an extremely sparkly pink dress that I got on sale at Charlotte Russe last year, some hot pink tights, sparkly flats, a crown that I have had forever, and the wings from my angel costume last year. I cut a tooth out of some white sparkly felt and safety-pinned it to the front of my dress. For Boo at the Zoo, I made a toothbrush wand using some sparkly embellishments of ribbon and pipe cleaners. As you can see, the key to being a tooth fairy is sparkly sparkles! Even though I thought it was pretty obvious what I was with the large tooth pinned to my chest and the toothbrush wand, some kids were a little confused. Throughout the day, I was called princess, fairy, and butterfly, but all of those are acceptable costumes, so I was ok with the confusion. Here is a picture of my costume along with my little, Mei Mei, who dressed up as candy corn! (She is adorable!!)
When we first arrived at the zoo, around 8:30 am, we were not able to park in our designated spot because of the runners in the Atlanta Marathon. They had the streets blocked off around the zoo, so we parked a few blocks away in a residential area and walked. It was so cold, and I couldn’t feel my toes! When we finally got to the zoo, a nice zoo employee directed us to the building where all of the volunteers were meeting. There was our large group, fifty girls from Omega Phi Alpha, as well as a group from the Key Club of a local school. We were split into groups and told what we would be doing for the day. My job would be handing out candy over by the reptile house. They had lots of candy stations set up all over the zoo, and there were also craft stations for the kids to enjoy.
Here is a video from last year’s event. I wanted to include this video in my post because I really think it captures the fun spirit of Boo at the Zoo, and it shows some of the adorable kids’ costumes. The baby bumblebees and lions were my favorite, although there was one little girl who was dressed as a flamingo. It was an awesome costume! 🙂
After the event was over around 3:00 pm, some people came to shut down our candy station, and then we were free to walk around the zoo! A whole group of us got together to explore.
While watching the pandas, Christine and I were reminded of this popular YouTube video: (I can watch this multiple times in a row! I don’t know why I find it so funny…)
Overall, I really enjoyed this service project! It was fun to spend time with my sisters, especially some of the pledges that I had not previously spent as much time with, and I loved seeing all of the kids. I would like for us to go back next year.
Nothin' Sweeter than ΩΦΑ 