Northeastern’s Greek Sing competition lights up summer at the Tobin Community Center in Mission Hill with a sizable donation.
More children from the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston and surrounding communities will be able to participate in camps this summer after Northeastern University sororities and fraternities donated over $24,000 to the Tobin Community Center.
Every spring, Northeastern’s Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Council host a dance and lip-sync competition called Greek Sing to raise money for a local charity.
This year’s event raised more than $24,600, which will be donated to the Tobin Community Center, one of the Boston Centers for Youth and Families.
When John Jackson, director of the Tobin Center, heard the news, he was surprised and appreciative of the Northeastern students.
“It’s perfect timing,” he says. “And we greatly appreciate the support. We absolutely do.”
The Tobin Center is planning to use the money to provide scholarships for children from 6 to 12 to attend a six-week summer camp that usually costs $500 per child.
“Most of our families are low-income households, families who are mostly headed by a single female, who would mostly have more than one child,” Jackson says. “Being able to have these monies available to provide scholarships is amazing for us. The last thing we want is parents have to make a decision to leave young kids at home because they can’t afford camp.”
This is the first time Northeastern’s sororities and fraternities rallied behind a single charitable cause, says Cameron Grandy, one of the organizers of the competition and a rising fourth-year student studying communications, media screen studies, criminal justice and international affairs.
In previous years, the winning fraternity and sorority from the dance and lip-sync events would make a donation to their chapters’ philanthropy.
