WORCESTER, Mass. – A college fraternity is gearing up for its annual Thanksgiving fundraiser.
The WPI Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity will deliver shopping bags for people to fill this weekend. They’re asking people for non-perishable items for a Thanksgiving meal.
The items are then donated to the Friendly House who provides Thanksgiving baskets for families in need. Last year, they collected 500,000 pounds of food, including what they bought with monetary donations.
They’re hoping to exceed the number this year.
“When this time comes, it really feels great,” said Brandon Rein, the External Vice President and Philanthropy Chair of Lambda Chi Alpha at WPI. “Fraternities at WPI are different from what you’d expect from the stereotypical life. We hold ourselves to high standards, we follow a lot of rules to make sure our members and our communities are as safe as possible. We want to make sure that what we’re doing is good for the community and not just a big PR effort.”
“These fellas do a great job,” said Friendly House Executive Director, Gordon Hargrove. “They’ve been doing it for the last 25 or 30 years. It’s been quite an effort on behalf of Lambda Chi brothers.”
The fraternity will drop bags off at homes Saturday and collect them the following Saturday.
The Friendly House said they already have 500 families set to receive thanksgiving meals and expect another couple hundred to register.
They also need turkeys, which can be brought directly to the Friendly House.
