Fraternity
spearheads disaster relief project
By
Safiya Elkhaldy
On-line Forty-Niner
When
Theta Chi Fraternity gave their pledges
the project of holding a clothes drive for
victims of the fire, they said they never
expected that with in three weeks their
fraternity house would be busting at the
seams with donated clothes.
Theta
Chi pledge, John Bevis, volunteered to lead
this project because he said this cause
hit close to home. A Thousand Oaks native,
Beavis knew many people who lost their homes
in the fire.
"I
have one close friend whose whole ranch
burned down, and another friend who lost
his home," Beavis said.
Motivated
by his friends he saw lose their homes in
the fire, Beavis and his pledge class decided
to combine their effort, and make their
project a success.
Beavis
explained how he and his pledge brothers
decided to advertise all over school by
posting bright yellow flyers to get the
attention of students.
Second,
they made personal announcements to at all
the Greek and cultural sororities and fraternities
on campus and asked for their support.
Finally,
since their fraternity house is located
on Seventh Street and Redondo Boulevard,
they took advantage of the busy traffic
by hanging up signs outside of their house
for the community to see.
"One
of the most rewarding experiences of having
this clothes drive was having people all
over the community stop by and drop off
clothes," Beavis said.
More
than 50 bags were donated to the Red Cross
and upon delivering the clothes Theta Chi
pledges had the opportunity to meet firefighters
that had battled the fires.
Despite
the fact that pledges completed their project,
all of them are going to continue to collect
clothes and canned food for fire victims.
Theta
Chi active, Sean Nuesch, said he feels this
project was successful for many reasons.
"We
wanted to show our pledges that being in
fraternity is more than a social thing,"
Nuesch said. "We wanted to show them
that philanthropy and community service
is an important aspect of our fraternity.
People think that Greek life is all social,
but with this clothes drive, I think the
campus and community saw how we value community
service."
The
fraternity as a whole is going to continue
collecting food and clothes at their turkey
dinner on Thursday. They have planned a
turkey feast for all Greek and cultural
clubs to attend, with an admission price
of three cans.
For
more information on how you can donate clothes
for their drive, contact John Beavis at
(805) 338-5101. For information regarding
Theta Chi's Turkey Dinner call (562) 547-6123.
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