All Greek Council Newsletter Jan 2017
Hello Greek Alumni! All Greek Council Eboard is so excited to present you with our first newsletter update! All the houses included in this newsletter have worked extremely hard to put this together for you, along with our Public Relations Chair, Brittany Englert (Zeta). In this newsletter, you will find more information about the events that All Greek Council held this semester as well as updates from many of the chapters at SUNY Potsdam.* We hope you enjoy learning more about our efforts and will look forward to updating you again soon!
~All Greek Council Executive Board * Note: All recognized chapters at SUNY Potsdam were asked to provide information for this newsletter. Those who are not represented failed to provide an update.
AGC Event: “Lost? Let a Greek Help You” 08/29/2016-8/30/2016
“Lost? Let a Greek Help You” was held the first two days of classes. The concept was exactly what the name suggests; if a student was lost on campus, Greeks would help them find their way. We had many faculty members stop by the table to tell us how much they loved the idea.
AGC Event: Growing Greeks 09/19/2016 Esther Lewin (Arethusa) is this year’s MoraleZagorski Greek Life Intern. She worked with Julie to develop this program which was designed to explore the current areas of strength/improvement within the Greek community and to explore ways to continue moving in a positive direction. We hope everyone who went took something from the night to help grow as chapters, and our Greek community as a whole!
AGC Event: 50 Hour Seesaw 09/23/2016
The 50 hour see-saw was held over SUNY Potsdam's Family Weekend. The primary goal was to connect with students and their families and to promote a positive image of Greek Life. In addition, we raised money for the Potsdam Humane Society. It was a great bonding event, as well as good PR for the Greek community.
AGC Event: Smash Your Stress Away 10/24/2016
Smash Your Stress Away was held October 24th, in front of the Barrington Student Union. The event allowed students to buy tickets to smash a block of ice, throw darts at water balloons, or destroy a fridge--all to relieve mid-semester stress. The event raised over $100 for the Potsdam Central School District.
AGC Event: All Greek Thanksgiving Dinner 11/15/2016 The Thanksgiving Dinner was an opportunity for us to come together as a community and to have fun! Each chapter brought two dishes to share with the community while All Greek Council eboard handled the turkeys and potatoes! We want to give a big shout out to the Elks Club in Potsdam for hosting us and for helping us to donate all of the leftover food to the Potsdam Food Pantry.
AGC Event: 5 Days of Giving 11/28/2016-12/2/2016
5 Days of Giving featured Candy Grams, Ornament decorating, a Volleyball Tournament, Gingerbread House “Jar Wars,� and a Gift Drive. All of the money and gifts that we raised was donated to the Potsdam Holiday Fund.
Chapter Updates
The following chapters were recognized during Fall 2016: Alpha Kappa Phi, (Ago), Alpha Psi Omega (APO), Alpha Sigma Tau (AST), Omega Delta Phi, (Omega), Delta Kappa Theta (DK), Phi Kappa Pi (Phi K), Phi Mu Alpha, (PMA), Sigma Alpha Iota (SAI), Sigma Gamma Phi (Arethusa), Sigma Lambda Gamma (SLG), and Zeta Gamma Sigma (Zeta). All chapters were asked to provide an update for this newsletter. Those who are not featured unfortunately did not provide any information. We look forward to providing you an update on them in the next newsletter.
This semester Alpha Sigma Tau has continued to strive for excellence and to be a positive helping hand to the community. We have continued to work with Adopt-AHighway and have cleaned the strip of highway given to us to help keep our community clean. We have also hosted and co-hosted numerous fundraisers and are using the money to start fundraising for Relay for Life. Throughout the semester we have co-hosted a car wash with DK, co-hosted Brinner with ZN, and hosted our own Tau’s and Tacos.
It’s been a very busy semester for Delta Kappa Theta. Throughout the semester, we have been very active with community service and in-house renovations. Currently our active brotherhood is working on renovating the structural support beams and adding gutters to the roof. In the beginning of the semester, Delta Kappa Theta fraternity participated in a suicide awareness hike called 46climbs. This charity began at Clarkson and works to raise more awareness of suicide. More information can be found at http://46climbs.com. Through our participation, the active brotherhood hiked Cascade Mountain, one of the 46 high peaks found in New York State.
Along with that, we held two highway clean-ups this semester to stay active in maintaining our area of route 56 as part of the Adopt-A-Highway program. We are starting to fundraise for our philanthropy, The American Cancer Society, and look forward to raising more money for them throughout this semester and next semester.
Omega Delta Phi was founded in 1963 and is proud to be part of our Greek Community at SUNY Potsdam.
We currently have 19 active members who are involved in many organizations outside of Greek Life, such as the Residence Life Office, Admissions Office, Crane ensembles, and multiple honor societies. This semester, we’ve held fundraisers for the American Cancer Society, supported the Suicide Awareness Walk, co-hosted a Bra Drive for sexual assault victims, worked campus events and have plans in the works for more community events. This past year we raised our house’s GPA and over half our sisters were recognized at the Greek Scholarship Reception this fall. Remember the red and white mean love in Omega.
Phi Kappa Pi participates in many events throughout the year. These include service events, fundraisers and other community wide events.
Every semester, we hold an event called Dollar Dogs where we serve hot dogs, have live entertainment and bring the community out for a night of fun and food. All of our proceeds go to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. This semester, we raised $277.00 and were happy to welcome Stay Tuned (an on campus a cappella group) as our entertainment. As a house we strive to not only work with the Greek community but the Potsdam community as a whole. For the past three years we have held an annual haunted house based off of the history of Phi Kappa Pi. We reach out to community members, professors, and friends to come out and enjoy a great Halloween experience. As a house we are always trying to be involved. Every year we are big participants in Potsdam’s Relay for Life where we walk all night for those effected by cancer. In past years we have been one of the highest contributors for donations, raising over $1,000, and we hope to continue that in the future. Over the past two years the Phi Kappa Pi alumni had been working on renovations for our house. Two years ago our alumni put in a brand new kitchen and over the past summer they completely redid our bathrooms. To give us more living space we also had our back apartment re-done, which has been used for storage. We are lucky to have their support as an active house. Phi Kappa Pi is proud to be apart of the growing Greek community and look forward to many more years of being one of Potsdam’s Greeks.
The brothers of Phi Mu Alpha are off to
a successful Fall 2016 semester! We continue to spread our love for music around the North Country with our community service projects and by performing at local hospitals. Though we are not initiating a new pledge class this semester, we continue to develop our brotherly love for one another and attempt to advance music in America by promoting our ideals.
Zeta Gamma Sigma was founded on March 17, 1955. We are located at 24 Main Street, as we have been since 1963. We strive to promote friendship loyalty and service throughout our sisterhood and the community.
Zeta's philanthropy is Habitat for Humanity and we help the United Methodist Church every year with their Habitat for Humanity walk. We also help the church with their annual turkey dinner every November. Over the summer our wonderful alumni paid for the majority of our windows to be replaced on the first and second floors of our house, as well as flooring in two of our bedrooms.
Right now we have active sisters coming from both SUNY Potsdam and Clarkson University. Taking girls from both schools is something we pride ourselves in as it brings new personalities and ideas into our house. We are excited to see what this new school year holds for us and the rest of the Greek community!
All Greek Council is thrilled to welcome Alpha Kappa Phi back to SUNY Potsdam. We look forward to all that they will do in the coming years and to having them included in the next newsletter!
Thank you to all our Greek Alumni! You are an amazing support system.
Sincerely, Caleigh Ames, Omega (President) Drew Stonemetz, DK (Vice President) Brendan Waters, DK (Treasurer) Ellen Fichera, Phi K (Secretary) Anneliese Bishop, Omega (Service)
Kiersten Dice, Zeta (Social) Brittany Englert, Zeta (Public Relations) Mark Cooley, DK (Academic)