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SIGMACHIcks Take the Derby Days Title for The Second Year in a Row!

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Hillary Coombs Student Contributor, Bryant University
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Bryant chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

From coin wars to talent shows, it was evident that last week was the 2nd Annual Sigma Chi Derby Days. From sunrise to sundown girls did anything and everything to out-do the other 15 teams of 5-7 girls. And one team even went above and beyond and serenated the brothers of Sigma Chi in the ROTO. That team was one of Sigma Sigma Sigma’s teams, SIGMACHIcks!

This is the second annual Sigma Chi Derby Days, AND the second year the SIGMACHIcks have won! While the competition is a fun and competitive way for all Bryant women to participate in, this team has a very special motive. In 2008, the sisters of Sigma Sigma Sigma founded the St. Jude Up Til’ Dawn event on Bryant University’s campus. St. Jude Up Til’ Dawn is a letter-sending campaign where students are asked to bring at least 25 addresses of friends and family members in hopes of raising money for the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Since 2008, the event has grown each year, and is now participated in by hundreds of Bryant students. In fact, in 2010 Bryant raised $32,807.00 and sent more than 9,000 letters. Both last year and this, the SIGMACHIcks fought to prevail against the competitors to donate a large sum of money to the cause.

The way that Derby Days works is that all of the money raised during the week by ALL of the teams, is divided in thirds between Sigma Chi’s National Philanthropy, the winning teams philanthropy choice, the new Make-a-Wish Foundation on campus. As the girls competed to win, they also fought for a generous check to donate towards their favorite charity. The girls not only raised a ton of money through friends and family on the online donation center, they also bought out 60 of their own Talent Show tickets they could sell, and went above and beyond in each daily competition. Putting in extra hours to practice their “Flash Mob” talent, and chasing boys in and out of classrooms to get the most signatures on “Sign-A-Sig” day, the girls were not willing to lose. As mentioned, the girls even serenaded the brothers to gain extra bonus points!  Below, you can see the words of the song.

However, the most interesting part of all this is not about the competition, but rather the end result. During the course of the week, over $6,000.00 was raised, leaving the SIGMACHIcks with approximately $2,000.00 to donate to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. While the girls did lose some sleep during the week, and were forced to put other priorities aside, they also had a great time doing it, and the reward was quite immense. As a member of Sigma Sigma Sigma, we place a lot of value on these kinds of charitable events, and could not be more proud of the 7 members’ hard work and ability to donate such a generous amount to one of our favorite charities. Congratulations to the SIGMACHIcks, and to all the other teams who participated and contributed to the generous amounts of money Sigma Chi and Sigma Sigma Sigma were able to donate. 

I wanna be…where the sig chi boys are
I wanna see them…and take their picture
Running around like those…what do you call them?
Oh…creeps!

Bothering them constantly…you don’t get too far
Waking them up…they will get sick of you
Chasing them down the…what’s that word again?
Oh…street

Up where they walk, up where they run
Up where they drink all day at hall 1
Wanderin free…wish I could be
Part of their world!!

Hillary Coombs is a junior at Bryant University studying International Business and Marketing minoring in Chinese and Spanish. She works during the summers at Westminster Tool blogging and updating all social media accounts as well as interning in the International Affairs office. During the fall of 2012, Hillary studied abroad in Salamanca, Spain where she held a marketing internship and perfected her Spanish language. At Bryant, she works in the Office of Planning and Institutional Research gathering crucial university data and presenting it through documents to the President, Deans, and other faculty members of Bryant University. Aside from working and studying Hillary is a member of the Sigma Sigma Sigma Sorority and Omicorn Delta Kappa. Hillary finds peace of mind staying active and running in local 5K races.