Friday, March 14, 2014

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!

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

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