Think back to your high school spirit week. Now, imagine that spirit week raising thousands of dollars for nonprofit organizations in your community. This is a good idea of what Southeast’s Greek Week is all about.
Alumni member of the Missouri Zeta chapter of Phi Delta Theta, Matt Rolwing, currently serves as Southeast’s Student Life Coordinator.
“It’s really the opportunity for our Greek students to try to break some of those stereotypes and give back to the community and make a difference for not only the Southeast school community, but the Cape Girardeau and Southeast Missouri community, as well,” Rolwing said.
Greek Week Director Haley Taylor and Co-Director Nic Feltz said SEMO students in the nine Interfraternity Council (IFC) and seven Panhellenic chapters are grouped together into pairings based on membership. These pairings participate in scored events during the spring semester in hopes of coming in first place for Greek Week.
Each year, there is a general Greek Week theme. Each pairing chooses a subtheme from a list determined by the Greek Week Steering Committee, which is typically comprised of six individuals from the Greek Life community. Greek Week 2022 is composed of five people, and the theme, “Southeast Showtime,” will focus on musicals.
The Steering Committee meets in the fall and spring semesters. The six members are chosen from applicants in the Greek Life community. These members do not participate in their chapter’s Greek Week efforts.
“We want to be able to keep it a secret because it’s so exciting to announce that to the chapters,” Taylor said. “It’s insanely hard to keep secret.”
Alpha Chi Omega and Phi Delta Theta are raising money for Dream Factory, an organization that seeks to grant the dreams of children who are critically or chronically ill. Alpha Delta Pi and Sigma Chi are fundraising for Hope For One More, which is a full foster care support and advocacy agency. Alpha Phi is paired with Tau Kappa Epsilon and Theta [Xi]. The trio of organizations is fundraising for One City, a nonprofit that has a community center located at 610 Independence. Another group of three, Alpha Xi Delta, Lambda Chi Alpha and Delta Chi will donate to the Community Partnership of Southeast Missouri, a community support organization. Sorority Delta Delta Delta and fraternity Pi Kappa Alpha will raise funds for SEMO NASV, which offers advocacy and counseling to children and adults who have experienced sexual violence or child physical abuse. Gamma Phi Beta and Sigma Nu are donating to Educare, which is an organization that seeks to improve the quality of child care and early learning programs. Finally, Sigma Sigma Sigma and Sigma Phi Epsilon will raise money for Voices For Children, which organizes volunteers who are voices for children in the foster care system.
Greek Week falls between April 3 and 10 this year, although there are many events outside of that week that count toward the total score of each pairing. One of these events was “Shiver ‘N’ Slide,” which took place March 9. During this event, students used the field between the Towers complex and Parker building as a slip and slide. Donations accounted for more than $900, according to Rolwing. Pairings also have “share nights” with some restaurants, who share a percentage of profits with the pairing for their respective nonprofits.
