Stamp Out Hunger! New Philanthropy Idea!

Thank you to our Las Vegas Alumnae Chapter sisters for the following idea! If you'd like more information, you can visit the United States Postal Service website at http://www.usps.com/communications/community/fooddrive.htm or the Help Stamp Out Hunger Website at http://www.helpstampouthunger.com/.

Dear Sisters,

The Las Vegas Alumnae Chapter invites you to take part in a philanthropy WITHOUT an event. In case you haven't seen our phrase "POST" before, it stands for something the Las Vegas Alumnae Chapter invented: Philanthropic Opportunity Separate, yet Together!

Alumnae often WANT to do more philanthropies, but just cannot make it to physical events. So what we do is look for events around town (or even the country) that every alum can take part in wherever she lives. This is one of them (coat and blanket drives in the fall are another).

The U.S. Postal Service Canned Food Drive will be Saturday, May 12. All you need to do is take a few of those extra cans or boxes of food from your closet, put them in a bag, and place them near your mailbox on Saturday, May 12. That's it. You will also be getting a postcard from the post office as a reminder with recommendations - no glass containers, for example.

Food is given to a local food pantry WHEREVER you live. It is an easy event that everyone can take part in - we invite you to share this with your members!

Thanks with love,

The Las Vegas Alumnae Chapter

Congratulations to our Delta Chi Chapter at Shippensburg University!

Congratulations to our Delta Chi chapter who tonight were recognized for the following accomplishments:

• Most Improved Sorority of the Year
• Greek Woman of the Year (chapter archon)

The Phi Sigma Sigma Foundation is so proud of the accomplishments of all of our chapters! Did your chapter win a campus award? If so, let us know!

Congratulations to our Zeta Pi chapter at The College of New Jersey!

Congratulations to our Zeta Pi sisters who won the following awards at the Greek Awards Banquet last night:

• Sorority of the Year
• Chapter Advisor of the Year

Congratulations and thank you for aiming higher!

Earn Money for the Foundation Every Time You Search the Internet!

What if the Phi Sigma Sigma Foundation earned a penny every time you searched the Internet? Well, now we can!

GoodSearch.com is a new search engine that donates half its revenue, about a penny per search, to the charities its users designate. You use it just as you would any search engine, and it's powered by Yahoo!, so you get great results.

Just go to http://www.goodsearch.com/ and be sure to enter Phi Sigma Sigma Foundation as the charity you want to support. Just 500 of us searching four times a day will raise about $7300 in a year without anyone spending a dime! And, be sure to spread the word!

Realizing a Dream Through the Leadership Conferences!

The Foundation had a wonderful time the past few months attending each of the five Leadership Conferences. We had the opportunity to meet wonderful and enthusiastic collegians and re-connect with some of our alumnae.

After the Chicago Leadership Conference, Barb, one of our Theta alumnae ('83) wrote this wonderful message to her Theta sisters.

Hi all - I attended the evening reception and Foundation Dinner this past weekend. I met some of the national officers and our headquarters staff and they are great. It's taken me 45 years but I was finally able to attend my first "International Event." You will be pleased to know that several Theta women led a room full of 200 + college girls in the "Dinner Song" -- How special!

After seeing a presentation on the "Transplant Games" that the Foundation helped sponsor, I felt compelled to make my first contribution to the Foundation. If you are like me, you may not have given the Foundation's mailers a lot of attention--I hope you will re-consider. The college girls are doing alot and giving alot of $ and maybe we can too. You can learn more about the foundation at http://www.phisigmasigmafoundation.org/index.htm.

And if you want to cut to the chase and make a donation, the link is: https://www.phisigmasigmafoundation.org/donate/donation.php.

Thank you Barb, and all of our alumnae, who joined us at the Foundation receptions we sponsored in Baltimore, Newark, Bakersfield, Albany and Chicago! The Foundation is so grateful for the amazing support we receive from our collegians, alumnae and friends!

Congratulations to our Delta Lambda chapter at Muhlenberg College!

Congratulations to Delta Lambda for being recognized as the "Greek Organization of the Year" at tonight's Greek Week Celebration!

Is your chapter one of the many Phi Sigma Sigma chapters that has won major campus awards this year? If so, let us know by leaving a comment on this post or emailing us at foundation@phisigmasigma.org!

Congratulations to our Epsilon Chi chapter at Indiana University Southeast!

Congratulations to our Epsilon Chi chapter at Indiana University Southeast for their amazing accomplishments this year. Last week the chapter was honored by receiving the following awards:

• VIP Award (7 sisters)


• President's Award for Volunteer Hours -- Completing more than 100 hours of community service (3 sisters)


• Commitment to Student Life Award

Has your chapter won campus awards? Leave a comment or email the Foundation to let us know about your outstanding efforts!

Chicago Leadership Conference 2007

Wow! The Foundation had a wonderful time at our final Leadership Conference of 2007 in Chicago. Thank you to all of the women from Communities 7 & 8 for an amazing weekend of sisterhood and leadership!

Living Our Twin Ideals In South Africa

Recently we heard from Stasia, a sister from our Gamma Tau chapter about how she is living our twin ideas of "the brotherhood of man and the alleviation of the worlds pain." Now we want to hear from you! How are you embodying our twin ideals in your life?

Dear Sisters,

As I am writing this, I am looking at a lagoon that is on the Indian Ocean. As you may have assumed, I am not in America but I am in the beautiful land of South Africa! I have been in Knysna, SA for almost a month now, and am due to come home at the end of April. I am here teaching at social studies at a middle school and it is quite different than it is in the States. Not only are the textbook and styles of learning and teaching different, but the context in which it is taught is very different. I am lucky that I am teaching on the American Revolutionary War and slavery, and not South African or African history!

This is not my first excursion to Africa—Last summer I lived in northern Kenya for eight weeks, teaching literacy in the bush and doing some other non-governmental work. It was here that I saw firsthand the AIDS pandemic and poverty in that gorgeous land. In northern Kenya, I spent almost a week living in a hut, walking to get water, living in a tribe and building relationships. That was 'true Africa,' where people ran naked because they did not have money to buy clothes and where people literally died of starvation because they could not obtain money to buy food to eat. It was here where I knew that my life would have a purpose and that I had to do my part in helping alleviate this part of the world's pain.

Many people that I have met think that I am outlandish for being passionate about Africa, but they do not understand that I am simply fulfilling an oath that I took three and a half years ago. It was then that I joined a sorority who strives to alleviate the world's pain.

I am very proud to wear my letters here in South Africa. I wore a lettered shirt to dinner last night. I was left at the table alone, and a water polo player came and sat at my table, and he was intrigued by the letters on my shirt. The first thing he asked was "So, are you in one of those American sororities?" I proudly told him that I was! He left our conversation well informed on the things that occur in a sorority! That conversation made me realize, though, that sororities are a world wide thing that people know about. Now, our sorority is known by a South African man!

I hope that I am making our Founders' proud while I am here and truly living our twin ideals. I challenge you to do the same—be proud to be a sister in Phi Sig and be unconventional. Stand for the things that you believe in and be PASSIONATE. You can change the world.

Diokete Hupsala,

Stasia
Gamma Tau

Congratulations to our Theta Gamma chapter at Gannon University!

Congratulations to our Theta Gamma chapter at Gannon University for winning the following awards at their Greek Banquet this week:

• Outstanding Sorority Leadership Award
• Outstanding Community Service Award
• Outstanding Senior Greek Woman Award
• Greek Goddess
  

The Foundation is so proud of your wonderful accomplishments! Aim High!

Has your chapter done something outstanding? Leave us a comment to tell us about it. Your chapter's accomplishments could be the next feature on the Foundation blog!

More Rock-A-Thon Success!

Congratulations to our Theta Delta chapter at the University of Illinois Chicago who had a wonderfully successful Rock-A-Thon recently! Tiffany, archon, wrote to say:

We just wanted to let you know how our Rock-A-Thon went! Theta Delta held our Rock-A-Thon for two 12 hour days at Marcus Theatre in Orland Park, IL in December. We successfully raised over $5,500 for Foundation and are excited that we were able to raise such an enormous amount for the third year in a row!!

Many of our chapters from across North America hold a Rock-A-Thon every year to benefit the Phi Sigma Sigma Foundation. Your donations support the National Kidney Foundation, Kidney Foundation of Canada, educational grants and scholarships and outstanding leadership development programming like the ACHIEVE program. Thank you to all of our chapters for your generous support of the Foundation!

Now it is your turn! Tell us how you make your Rock-A-Thon awesome! You can leave a comment or email us at foundation@phisigmasigma.org!

Bakersfield Leadership Conference: Sunny Skies and Amazing Phi Sigma Sigma Sisters!

Bakersfield, CA was the site of Community 9’s 4th Annual Leadership Conference and it was a fantastic time. We had executive board members from 10 chapters and 2 colonies and all our alumnae volunteers from Arizona, California, Oregon, Colorado, and Nevada! A big thank you to all of you who traveled in from all corners of Community 9!

Friday evening started with a great meal at a local Basque restaurant and then it was off to Community 9 Leadership Conference! Beginning with a Philanthropic Recruitment event where fraternity personnel worked to recruit our collegiate women to join the Tau Beta ("The Best") chapter of Phi Sigma Sigma. This was a great opportunity for chapters to learn a new idea for philanthropic recruitment and we hope that many of our chapters will incorporate this into their next recruitment planning.

Saturday was the busiest day! A.C.H.I.E.V.E, officer round-tables, awards luncheon, preference ceremony, an alumna initiation, luggage finally arriving, and finally, the Foundation dinner. The one thing we heard over and over was that there wasn't enough TIME!!! The women soaked up every opportunity they had to network, exchange ideas, and discuss best chapter practices.

LC 9 had some great moments, and here is a small synopsis: Little notes of welcome from the Epsilon Epsilon Chapter “West is BEST”, ACHIEVE, the Preference ceremony for our new colonies at University of Colorado @ Colorado Springs, and Metro State Denver, Initiating Linda Adams (mom of Epsilon Epsilon CKA Stacy Hayden), the debut of a new Foundation Auctioneer-Katie Herschede who did such a great job that we raised over $24,000 for Foundation, 8 new members of the 1913 society, on and on!

Before we knew it Sunday morning arrived. Where did the time go? We were so excited to see the enthusiasm of our collegiate women of the information they had to take back to their chapters, watching sisters bond with not only their chapter sisters but with sisters from all over our community! We only wished we had more time...but we are very excited for Conclave this summer at Disney World in Orlando, FL.

We would like to give a special shout-out to: all of the ACHIEVE Facilitators, Foundation, Fraternity HQ staff especially our membership manager Cat Udell, Nicole Hollar, our three Grand Archons who came out- Kim Hildred, Chris Senseney, and Sandy Grossman and finally, to our amazing Chapter Key Advisor's, Advisory Board Members, Collegiate Sisters, and Colony members that attend the conference! See you in July!

In Our Bond,

Joanne Barrick
Community Archon

Catherine Udell
Membership Manager

Rock-A-Thon Success!

Congratulations to our Epsilon Epsilon chapter at CSU Bakersfield on their tremendous Rock-A-Thon. The chapter raised over $5,000 for the Phi Sigma Sigma Foundation. Their hard work and outstanding fundraising will support those with kidney disease, fund scholarships and grants for our sisters and support outstanding leadership programming for our sisterhood.

Amanda, chapter archon, said:

After months of hard work and dedication from each chapter member, Epsilon Epsilon's 2007 ROCK-A-THON for Phi Sigma Sigma Foundation was a HUGE success! Over $5100 was raised...and we are STILL counting! As always, the event had a great turnout from local alumnae, other Greek organizations, CSUB faculty, students and the general public. We were even featured for a guest interview on a local radio station prior to the event. Over $2000 in prizes were donated by local business for the raffle giveaway and over 1000 raffle tickets were sold! New this year, sisters were able to receive donations online! The event featured tables for both the Phi Sigma Sigma Foundation and The National Kidney Foundation, including organ donor sign ups! This event is just an example of how women can unite to make a difference! Through hard work and dedication we were able to reach our fundraising goal...and then AIM HIGHER! I am proud to be part of such an amazing organization and contribute my part for such worthy causes. The Epsilon Epsilon Chapter dedicates their annual ROCK-A-THON in memory of sister Jenine Weirather.

Reminder: Foundation Donations Due March 10!

This is just a reminder that collegiate chapter Foundation donations are due by March 10 to Headquarters. If you need an extension, please contact your Membership Manager before the deadline.

Thank you to all of our chapters for your truly generous support of the Phi Sigma Sigma Foundation and a special thank you to those chapters who have already submitted their donation!

Aim High!

Albany Leadership Conference Pictures

Thank you to all of the women in Communities 1 & 4 who made this weekend a wonderful success!