Last week, Sigma Alpha Epsilon at Baylor University hosted their annual Paddy Murphy Week on campus. Full of different events, this philanthropy-centered week included pies, profit shares and lots of quick thinking.
While continually working with Student Activities to make sure events got approved and cleared by University regulations, Houston senior Nick Torres, one of the philanthropy chairs, explained that it was a challenge at times.
They were, however, able to successfully have their tug of war tournament, Brazos River clean up and bubble soccer tournament. Along with raising interest and bringing business to different restaurants across Waco with multiple profit shares. They had big plans including a dunk tank, an adoption event with dogs and a concert, Torres said the organization had many hoops to jump through to organize events in time.
As the event hasn’t happened since moving virtual in 2019, Houston sophomore Jackson Mitschke explained how each year the specific foundation the group chooses can change. For example, this year’s donation goes to the Puppy Jake Foundation, a group that focuses on raising and training service dogs for veterans at home.
“With this Paddy Murphy Week … it was our inaugural one and we felt very good about it. We feel like we have a good example in the direction of how we want to do it in the future,” Mitschke said.
Torres said they raised about $2,500 for this year’s honorary charity. Though expecting more, with COVID-19 circumstances and the long-awaited arrival of the event, it’s still a good amount, he said.
While this week is meant to bring awareness and attention to their chosen organization, Torres said the events also brought the fraternity members together. He said whether it was during tabling shirts or cleaning up the river, seeing the guys interact more was another high point of the week.
“It was kind of nice because we haven’t done anything on campus in quite a while,” Torres said. “I think the event was able to bring a lot of us closer as a fraternity and it was able to get us in better reach with some people.”
According to their members, Sigma Alpha Epsilon was able to highlight the Puppy Jake Foundation and hold a successful week for their fraternity. And while Torres shared that the loss of the proposed concert was the “biggest L,” he looked on the bright side. He said the week still gave them the opportunity to donate to a good cause and not to mention, was able to happen at all.
“Obviously it was all crazy to deal with and things like that but it was a lot of fun and we got our name out there with the people. We were able to raise money for a good cause,” Torres said.
