As the semester begins to end, and students are gearing up for final exams, Central Michigan University’s fraternity and sorority life is gearing up for something else entirely– Greek Week.
According to CMU’s website, “Greek Week is a weeklong fundraising event for a local or national philanthropy. Fraternities and Sororities form teams to compete in fundraising, games, and mock rock to collect points to ‘win’ the week. Ultimately, the entire community wins as students raise a significant amount of money for a great cause.”
In the past, the community has chosen to support causes like Special Olympics Michigan (2014), Keisha Y. Brown Angel Wings Fund (2015), and the Derrick Nash Strong Foundation (2016).
Last year, Greek Week raised $83,500 for The Isabella County Child Advocacy Center, and The Kristy Malter Memorial Fund (2017). Kristy Malter was a CMU senior and sister of Alpha Gamma Delta sorority when she passed away suddenly from meningitis in July of 2016. Her death rocked the entire Mount Pleasant community, which is why her foundation was chosen as one of the two philanthropies to receive the week’s earnings. Having such a personal cause to rally behind brought the teams together in a new way, and the week raised more money than ever before.
This year, Greek Week will be supporting Women’s Aid Service, a non-profit that works towards the intervention and prevention of domestic violence , along with Special Days Camp, a Michigan camp that provides the traditional experience of camp to children with cancer.
The week began on March 26th with an all Greek picture and will continue with various service events until the annual Mock Rock at McGuirk Arena on Thursday, April 5th. Each team will perform a series of dances that will then be scored by a panel of judges. The scores are factored in to the standings from the week, and an overall winning team is announced. The amount of money raised by all teams will also be announced, and checks will be presented to the philanthropies.
The teams are hoping to reach their goal of raising over $100,000 as a community to give towards two deserving causes. In a time when there is so much negativity about Greek life in the media, it’s nice to see CMU’s Greek students dedicate their last few weeks of school to giving back.