Every year William and Mary’s campus comes alive with electric energy –the excited hurrahs and shouts of joy ring through the air like our beloved Wren Building bell promising a day of uninhibited celebration! Underclassmen and upperclassmen come together for one epic day of thrill-seeking, dancing and lollygagging in full-fledged Halloween-esque attire. During this day, we are reminded that life can take a momentary pause as ladies in lavender, long-sleeved shirts adorned in Mardi Gras green and gold beads and backward neon caps greet excited students with warm smiles settling the chills of a not-so-warm spring day. The Sunken Garden stands within the center of Old Campus and oftentimes serves as an oasis for serene and peaceful meditation, relaxation, and socialization. But for this particular occasion, it transforms into a student-ridden, makeshift golf course. Large white buckets function as holes, pleasant Kappa Delta members play their role as caddies, and finally, William and Mary students take on the air of amateur golfers. The reason behind all of these campus shenanigans can only be the event that TWAMPs have come to know and love as Campus Golf.
I had the chance to speak with Alison Cohen and Ashley Darang who are both sophomores at William and Mary and dedicated members and organizers for Kappa Delta Alpha Pi Sorority, which is the organization responsible for hosting Campus Golf year after year. Alison shared that, “campus golf is our annual philanthropy that supports Avalon and Prevent Child Abuse America and all Kappa Delta chapters nationally participate in this Shamrock event, which raises money.” She continued on to say that, “20% of the chapter money that we raise goes to Prevent Child Abuse America (PCAA) and 80% of that money goes to the chapter’s local philanthropy”, which for the William and Mary Kappa Delta chapter, is the Avalon Center for Women and Children.
Not only does the money raised by Kappa Delta contribute to the betterment of the lives of hundreds, if not thousands, of women and children who are abuse victims and survivors, it has also proven itself to be a sustainable program that has captured the hearts and minds of thousands of William and Mary students throughout its existence. Campus Golf has been Kappa Delta’s primary annual fundraiser for the past 20 years and this year around 2,500 students signed up to participate in the day-long event, which equated to approximately 500 teams throughout the actual day. These numbers are amazing considering the fact that the sorority had to postpone the whole event because of weather-related issues. But clearly, the snow didn’t stop their success. Ashley excitedly spoke about their partnership with Tribe Athletics stating that this collaboration made it clear that there was a high level of support from administration to student athletes, one being Her Campus celebrity, Marcus Thornton.
One of the greatest outcomes of the 2015 Campus Golf event has to be the amount of money they were able to raise for both Avalon and PCAA. Kappa Delta received almost $32,000 in financial contributions, which topped the fundraising efforts of previous years by several thousand dollars.
While both Alison and Ashley are excited to see an increase in the number of participants and contributions, they also stressed the importance of knowing the significance and motivation behind the Campus Golf event. Ashley felt that, “putting the focus on our philanthropy and remembering why we are actually doing this is the important thing.” Alison agreed expressing how this year, “we really pushed that focus because we found out that some people didn’t even know it was a Kappa Delta event for Avalon and PCAA and they just thought of it as a fun day.”
So while Campus Golf has become an important tradition for students here at the College of William and Mary allowing us to lose ourselves in up-tempo pop music, crazy creative costuming, and mindless fun with friends, we still must remember the true purpose behind our participation. Whether you are channeling your inner Sia in a full-fledged blonde wig and onesie or playing Latin hits in a traditional sombrero, jacket, and colorful pants evoking the style of a Mariachi band member, the fact of the matter is that we play a part in making the world a little better with every shared laugh, ridiculous dance move, and missed bucket shot.