Wonderful Founders' Day Event

The Foundation received this wonderful report from Melanie Toner, Archon of the Philadelphia Alumnae Chapter. Congratulations for a wonderful event!

Founders’ Day 2008 was a huge success for the Philadelphia alumnae chapter. With seven chapters in attendance, we hosted almost 400 women to celebrate our founders’ vision and strength. Special Events Chair, Mary Elizabeth Gantz, planned a fabulous event at Harrah's in Chester. For this Founders' Day, we debuted a new format, complete with a panel of successful alumnae, a Phi Sig marketplace featuring every chapter, and a new collegian award.

Our panel featured Foundation Executive Director Nancy “Nash” Hay (Beta Rho), Gina D’Amato-Kaufman (Gamma Xi), Jess Pomraning (Gamma Gamma) and was moderated by Foundation Secretary Heather Kelley (Beta Psi). Collegians were asked to provide us with questions of anything that might be on their mind. Among other things, they asked about networking opportunities, career strategy, and whether or not our panelists watch the TV show, Greek.

The day kicked off with the Phi Sig Marketplace – an hour long opportunity devoted to networking. Each chapter was provided with a table to display information about their events and to sell t-shirts or other fundraising items. Next, Mary Elizabeth welcomed everyone and the women from Zeta Omicron performed the SPHINX ceremony.

This year, we presented two awards, one of which was brand new. Each year, we honor an alumnae sister who excels in sorority and community service with the Helen Berkowitz award. Past recipients include Kim Hildred (Gamma Epsilon), Nancy Hay (Beta Rho), Diane Spatz (Nu) and many others. This year’s honored recipient was Jess Pomraning (Gamma Gamma). We also started a new tradition this year. We felt it was important to also honor outstanding collegians in our region and so we debuted a new award, the Outstanding Philadelphia Area Collegian Sister Award. We received outstanding nominations and Mary Elizabeth read each one aloud. We are so proud to have awarded this year’s plaque to Laura Ferro (Nu).

And of course, we also made sure to remember to uphold our founders’ ideals. Our community service project was a toiletry drive which benefited Family House in West Philadelphia. In addition, we raised $689 for the Phi Sigma Sigma Foundation between raffle tickets and pin sales. Unique Impressions will also graciously donate a portion of their proceeds to the Foundation. Finally, we debuted a new T-shirt as a chapter fundraiser and sold 31 shirts!