Alpha Iota [Chi Psi] at the University of Wisconsin recently hosted a philanthropy event that raised more than $10,000 for Special Olympics Wisconsin. We talked with Landon Tselepis, I ’22, and Ollie Parmekar, I ’24, to learn more about their mission in Madison.
With the freezing weather and abundance of snow, going outside might not be on the top of most people’s lists. However, the Brothers of Alpha Iota looked at this as an opportunity to bring the Greek community together, especially after intramural sports had been cancelled at Wisconsin.
Alpha Iota hosted their second annual Langdon Invitational Hockey Tournament this year on Lake Mendota, inviting many of the other fraternities on campus to participate.
“Every winter when Lake Mendota freezes over, we go out and play hockey just with our Fraternity,” says Tselepis. “Last year, COVID limited us in what we could do. I decided to call some of my friends in other fraternities and told them to come play hockey. We ended up forming a tournament and everyone came out to support their fraternities. It went great; almost 150 people came out. After seeing the large turnout, we wanted to figure out how we could turn this into a philanthropic event.”
Tselepis went on to explain how they were able to fundraise by hosting a T-shirt selling competition with the other fraternities, selling grilled cheese to the attendees, and even finding local sponsors to help with the event.
We asked Parmekar about why they chose to support Special Olympics of Wisconsin.
“I have a twin brother with special needs, so I’ve been involved with Special Olympics of Wisconsin all my life,” says Parmekar. “Growing up, my brother and I formed a special bond because he loved watching me play hockey. They were on board right away as well. Landon was very prepared when we went to meet with them. They gave us a lot of tips throughout the process and helped set everything up for us.”
Given that this was their first year hosting the event as a philanthropy, we wanted to know more about how they were able to market the tournament to the campus and have such success. The Brothers designed the logo themselves and created a video to promote the event. They worked with other fraternities to reach a larger audience and unite Greek life at Wisconsin. The fraternities and sororities assisted in sharing the video and other graphics to generate awareness for the event.
