THE
Arctic Circle Winter 2022 Issue
2
Newsletter
Edition 03/Feb
Alumni Spotlight: Dyllan Walker mtu15
House Update
In my post-Tech years, two things have become very important in my life: community service and cycling. So, when a couple buddies from town came to me and asked me to help them plan and execute a 100-mile gravel bike race, there was only one answer: “Hell, no!” With a fulltime job and plenty of community commitments already jamming my schedule, I took some convincing. Eventually my “hell, no” turned to an “OK, fine,” and we set off to work. Fourteen months of work came down to one day.
In the fall of 2018, our members moved into our fraternity’s first-ever owned chapter house, thanks to our alumni’s generous donations and the Triangle Building and Housing Corporation. With 2021 now in the books, we’ve had three years in the chapter house, and it has been an incredible addition to our fraternity. Thank you to everyone who donated and worked to make this dream a reality.
October 9th at 5:15 a.m., before the music started and the racers showed up, before we even had a full cup of coffee, we took some time to reflect on race prep at the starting line. For us the countless hours of course scouting, media shoots, racer relations, and planning would mean nothing if race day didn’t go well. At 83 registrants, some local but many from out of town, October 9th was one hell of a first impression to get right! If the day didn’t go well, the Rusty Fish 100, much like a salmon heading up to Tippy Dam, would only get one run. As the clock quickly approached starting time, racers started showing up. The music started at 7:30, prerace announcements were at 7:50, and finally 7:59:59 turned to 8:00 and we sent 67 racers out. Lots of smiles were mixed with tense apprehension as racers departed the starting chute onto the challenging 100-mile course. A crowd of families and well-wishers cheered the racers out. We wouldn’t see the first finishers for five and a half hours! Around 2:00 p.m., most riders started trickling in. The last of the 47 finishers crossed just after the 10-hour limit to hearty cheers from the crowd enjoying pizza and craft beers at the afterparty.
In short, we had a great time planning and running our bike race. So much so that we plan to do it all again this coming October (10/8/2022). You can follow us on all the social media platforms if you want to hear more. Alternatively, look me up next time you’re in Manistee. We’ll have a Rusty Fish IPA at North Channel Brewing, and I’ll tell you all about it. (Here’s a link to the 2021 race video: https://fb.watch/aKqhCDyhfS/.)
Bio:
Dyllan Walker works for Packaging Corporation of America. He started with PCA in 2013 as a co-op at the Filer Mill. After finishing his B.S. in environmental engineering at Michigan Tech, he moved to PCA’s International Falls, Minnesota mill briefly before returning to Manistee in 2017. In 2020 Dyllan assumed his current role as a corporate process safety engineer. Dyllan maintains several leadership positions in the community. He volunteers at the Armory Youth Project as a Facility Manager. He is the President for the Manistee Jaycees, and most recently, he was appointed to the Board of the Manistee Area Chamber of Commerce. His hobbies include cycling, maple sugaring, and ice fishing.
This past year we made some renovations to the chapter house to repair the foundation, which was leaking water into some of the basement bedrooms, causing mold on some of the furnishings. Repair work was started in June of 2021 and lasted through most of the summer. To start, the front porch was demolished, and the yard was dug up for foundation access. Concrete was brought in, and a new wall was poured alongside the existing foundation. After the hole was filled back in, the porch was rebuilt with new materials. On the interior, the double-occupancy basement bedroom got some new flooring and drywall. An upcoming house project is renovating the garage into a workshop for the chapter. The garage currently is used for storage and is not well situated as a workshop. Alumnus Troy Bouman has been working with the chapter this past year to develop a plan to renovate the space into something more usable. Funding for this project will come from some of the remaining donations that enabled the purchase of the chapter house.
Brother Darien Benner mtu18 Alumni Treasurer
Alumni Support Improvements to Chapter House
If you wish to make a tax-deductible gift to the Michigan Tech House Fund, please contact Triangle Education Foundation Vice President Aaron Girson at agirson@triangle.org or 317-203-4510.
Thank You!
Gifts can also be made online at http://triangleef.org/
We thank the alumni who have generously made gifts to the Michigan Tech House Fund in the Triangle Education Foundation—these funds will be used for improvements to educational space in the chapter house. As of January 15, 2022, more than $16,000 has been contributed. Our thanks to the following alumni, who have made a gift in support of chapter house improvements:
Benjamin Cottrill mtu12 Christopher Pollock mtu09 Daniel Sullivan mtu13 Jerry Tozer mtu13 Herbert Polk mtu90 James Lowery mtu09 Jeffrey Cottrell mtu94 Jeffrey Letherer mtu01
Joseph Halford mtu13 Noah Rau mtu13 Ronald Tackett mtu97 Samuel Michels mtu10 Timothy Whited mtu88 Todd Lewinski mtu95 Tony Leik mtu98 Troy Bouman mtu09
Alumni Dyllan Walker (left) and friends at the Rusty Fish 100
Active Chapter Update
At Michigan Tech, our fall semester was very eventful as we reemerged into the campus environment in a safe and fun way. We held social events to expose our younger brothers to the different Greek organizations, such as the annual Lumi event co-hosted with the MTU chapter of Delta Phi Epsilon. This allGreek event marks the first snowfall of the year and is a great opportunity to interact with Greek life members and faculty before winter truly sets in. We also collaborated on service and philanthropy events to benefit the wider community. Our most significant philanthropy event of the semester, Pi Mile, was incredibly impactful and raised $410 for the Western UP Food Bank in support of their Thanksgiving Food Pantry. Our recruitment season brought two new brothers into the fraternity, both of whom have already taken leadership positions for the spring semester. The chapter also kept its academic priorities in line during a difficult transition to in-person learning that many of our younger members had not experienced previously. We achieved an average GPA of 3.172 among our current active members.
Steven Ott mtu20
3
Newsletter
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triangle fraternity Engineers | Architects | Scientists
TRIANGLE
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triangle fraternity
BUILDING & HOUSING CORP.
Engineers | Architects | Scientists
The Triangle Building & Housing Corporation (TBHC) is dedicated to providing top-notch experience and industry insight into a multitude of responsibilities involved in maintaining a chapter home. In 2014 the TBHC was formed to own & manage chapter assets, increase loan & mortgage services, implement expanded educational training & programs, and partner with local house corporations & alumni to implement industry-standard life safety programs & facilities. Over the last 6 years, the TBHC has created a larger profile in direct partnerships with local alumni & house corporations to create and improve chapter opportunities across the realm. Interested in learning more about TBHC or have questions? Please reach out to Mike Fouts at mfouts@triangletbhc.org or 317-837-9642.
Triangle Education Foundation Chapter Endowment Fund Program
Triangle Fraternity Growth Success Program
The Chapter Endowment Fund (CEF) Program offers a Tax-Deductible way to financially support your chapter! This program allows potential donors the opportunity to make a significant gift to educational programs for your chapter and a charitable tax deduction on your Federal income forms subject to the Federal Tax laws.
Undergraduate leadership has been hard at work with Jim Phillips, Director of Growth and Expansion, to place a priority on recruitment during the fall and spring semester. This fall the chapter has the unique task of recruiting new members amid COVID-19, leading to much of the training, planning, and execution of recruitment to be conducted virtually.
Below are a few of the educational purposes chapters can use their CEF to fund:
Through the Growth Success Program, undergraduate leadership creates weekly and monthly goals related to recruitment. Jim Phillips holds the group accountable for these goals through weekly virtual meetings. These weekly meetings focus on preparation, logistics, utilization of social media, marketing skills, cold conversation startups, and motivational tactics.
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Scholarship grants to members of the chapter
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Educational grants to cover portions of the expenses for registration, travel, and accommodation to attend leadership conferences
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Grants for educational resources in the fraternity structure, such as desks, bookcases, books, computers, and software in the educational areas
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This exciting program provides opportunities to fund the educational purposes of your chapter and the educational and leadership needs of its undergraduate Brothers!
We are looking forward to sharing more about the ongoing success with recruitment throughout the rest of the year!