Sister of the Week: Emily

Congratulations to Emily, our Sister of the Week!

Emily is a Big Sister! Pretty runs in the family.... 

Immediately since she joined, she loved Zeta and wanted to be dedicated and involved in our organization.  She currently serves as our Membership Vice President, and has been reelected for another term next academic year.

Emily recruiting at Activities Unlimited

On top of all this, she just crossed a wonderful class of our newest members: She did an fantastic job inviting people to rush, coordinating rush, and helping them through the MIT process.  She also has been planning creative and fun bonding events for our chapter.  And yes, they are all a blast!

Emily and our newest members!

Emily has stolen all of our hearts at Zeta—she is a great friend, a caring member, and able to make us all smile.  Thanks for being an incredible sister to us!  

Sisters of the Week: Beta Class

Gamma class could not contain this round of Sister of the Week to just one member--so they picked an entire class! 

This week's Sister of the Week goes to Beta Class: Isabel, Alex, and Jen! They created a strong foundation for our chapter. Each of these sisters has held numerous offices (often many positions at the same time!) to keep us #ZetaStrong! These ladies demonstrate what it means to be a sister of Gamma Sig and the importance of service, friendship, and equality. We will miss the graduating members of Beta class, Isabel and Jen, and wish them the best of luck on their future endeavors. You have set an excellent example for the future leaders of Zeta!

Sister of the Week: Danielle

Congratulations to our Sister of the Week: Danielle! Here's some of what Beta class had to say about their nomination:

"Danielle hosted and planned Lightening Round Service Palooza where members who were lacking hours completed service for PAWS by cutting and braiding dog toys, hanging ribbons for MADD and compiling busy books for a local women's shelter.

She is taking initiative and is working on planning several fundraisers for our chapter and for some of national partners like Alex's Lemonade Stand. 



Beta class feels she actively embodies our ideals of service, friendship and equality by always including everyone and reaching out to help those struggling with membership requirements. She tallied a significant number of service hours this past term, making her one of Zeta's most prolific volunteers. We are proud to nominate her for sister of the week!"

A Zeta Toy Story

Last weekend, Zeta went to the Salvation Army warehouse to help sort toys. Gemini, one of our local alumni chapters, accompanied us.

We sorted pallets full of boxes of donated toys.

Some toys took us for a stroll down memory lane, with classics like Play-Doh, Barbie, toy cars, and Etch-a-Sketches. Even though it's only March, the Salvation Army has tons of donations to be sorted and packaged before the holidays.

Jen, our service VP, and some of her favorite childhood toys!

We sorted the toys by gender and age, usually in a 2 year range. While it's easy to tell what toys are appropriate for each gender, we questioned a few. Several science kits and crystal makers had us scratching our heads. These might be stereotyped as 'boy toys', some of our members begged to differ. Our female engineering majors said they would have loved to play with these as kids and chose to give some to the girls. By sorting toys this way, we hope to encourage young girls to enter the science field.


The last hour we packed boxes and labeled them according to contents.

After a day of hard work, we went home tired and content.  A fun time was had by all!

We always enjoy alumni service projects, and look forward to serving with Gemini more in the future.

And Gammy, too!

Pretty in Pink

About a dozen of our members volunteered at the 2014 Pink Invitational, a gymnastics meet sponsored by Unite for HER.  Unite for Her is a foundation that helps fund and support wellness programs to women diagnosed with breast cancer.

Zeta was eager to volunteer at the Pink Invitational a second time because of the huge impact it has on the breast cancer community.  In fact, it is Unite for Her's largest fundraising event.  We even volunteered right beside women who benefit from this organization.

Unite for Her provides breast cancer patients with knowledge about complimentary treatments, such as yoga and nutrition, resource support for breast cancer, and wellness and healing networks for people going through similar treatments.

Watching the gymnasts compete stunned us all!  There were many events that young athletes train for all year, including uneven parallel bars, vault, floor, and balance beam.  These talented gymnasts demonstrated their dedication and hard work during their events.

Those who scored over a 9.0 received a ribbon with their name on it to tie on the Pink Ribbon display at the gym.  More than 4,000 gymnasts received a ribbon for their +9.0 performance, which was celebrated with a $1 donation to breast cancer research, each.

In years prior, we showed score cards and got to watch gymnasts compete. This year, most of our members worked the doors at registration or as wristband checkers. Some got to help with makeup and temporary tattoos for gymnasts.

At the end of our shift, we stayed around to watch and support the gymnasts compete.

Congrats to all the gymnasts, parents, and volunteers that helped make the Pink Invitational a success again this year!

SFE,
Zeta

MLK Day of Service!

Every third Monday in January, in honor of Martin Luther King Jr., organizations step up and dedicate a day to serving their communities.  This year, Zeta participated with an organization local to Philadelphia, called Bike Works.

Bike Works provides access to under-served west and north Philadelphia neighborhood residents with educational and recreational programs that center around bicycling.  They raise funds from their North Philadelphia bike shop to operate youth programs, adult classes, and career building events.

Our Zeta fellowship with this organization happily volunteered for their worthy cause this past Monday.  Some of our members sorted bike parts, others labeled and organized the bins.  Another group repainted tables for their programs.

We were glad to provide some extra hands to Bike Works for MLK Day of Service!

Zeta at the Ball

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
― Margaret Mead

A small fighter, Alex Scott, started a small lemonade stand in a small town in Connecticut.  As a cancer patient, she set out to raise money from her little stand to donate to childhood cancer research.  That same small stand raised $2,000 her first year, and became a tradition every year thereafter.

Now, Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) is a landmark organization for childhood cancer fundraising, awareness, and research.  They hold a multitude of events and have raised over $60 million through their programs and partners.

This past Saturday, January 11th, 2014 , Zeta had the privilege to volunteer at the Lemon Ball, a black tie event that raised more than $900,000 this year alone.  The event was held at the beautifully decorated Marriott in Center City, and about 900 guests attended.

Each member was assigned a unique job at the ball.  Some of us worked the raffle, some of us helped clean up after the event, some of us handed out goodie bags (and some of us got to stuff the goodie bags, too!)  A good time was had by all!

Stuffing goodie bags!

ALSF just started as a small gesture to make the world a little bit better.  Just one girl with her family hosting a lemonade stand in their hometown.  This ripple effect greatly resonates with Zeta, as we have struggled to grow as a small chapter of 4 members, into a blossoming group of dedicated students, eager to make an impact in our community.  There is no limit to what greatness can be achieved, even beginning with minimal resources.  The most important step is to start anyway.

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world.  Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."