KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Brothers from Western Michigan University’s Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity, or PIKE, will be camping on campus for the next 48 hours.
The fraternity started taking donations for the nonprofit, Communities in Schools of Kalamazoo, or CIS, at 7 a.m. Tuesday morning and will continue to so until 7 a.m. Thursday at the university’s flagpoles near Sangren Hall.
“CIS is an organization that is in support of kids, local kids in Kalamazoo. They take kids that are at high risk of possibly dropping out of school and provide them with a support they need; if that’s after school programs or materials they may need to graduate high school and get into college,” External Vice President of PIKE at WMU Marco Azzopardi said.
However, there is a twist.
The more money raised for the nonprofit, the more things the brothers “lose” during their campout. These lost things can vary from couches to technology, or even participating in silly activities.
Some of the brothers were touting fun outfits, such as pickle and hotdog costumes.
“The theme for this event is the more we raise, the more the kids gain,” Azzopardi said. “The more money that we raise the more we’re losing one of those milestones that we reached. I believe right around $2,000 was that I was going to get a Walmart sheet cake to the face if we hit that milestone. And we just hit that.”
