Nash's Donor Tour Part II

It’s Nash, here again with another update on my awesome “Donors Rock” tour. I continued my travels meeting sisters both in Philadelphia area and neighboring New Jersey as well….

November 19 – I ventured across the bridge to visit our fabulous women at Zeta Pi, The College of New Jersey (TCNJ). Over a delicious pasta dinner, we shared some Phi Sig history and lots of good stories. Thank you for cooking for me and welcoming me on my first ever visit to this campus. It was really fun!

November 20 - I was delighted to have coffee with two very special alumnae at Starbucks on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. It was wonderful catching up with Heather Kelley, a Beta Psi alumna and current Foundation Secretary and Diane Spatz, a Nu alumna, who is a Foundation Director Emeritus and the long standing CKA at Xi Chapter, Temple University.

November 20 – Dodgeball, anyone? How fun it was to watch the sisters of Zeta Gamma chapter at West Chester University compete among themselves in their first annual Phi Sig Olympics. The chapter divided themselves into teams complete with names, t-shirts, and cheers while having a blast playing dodgeball, answering trivia questions, and other fun activities. Following the game, it was so nice to tour their house and chat with the sisters about how the university has changed since I was their CKA in the 1990s. Thank you for hosting me and allowing me to share your entertaining games!

November 23 – I was thrilled to have lunch with Beta Alpha alumna Bonnie Diamond Aaron, who served the Foundation as a former Philanthropy and Fundraising Chairman. Since it’s been years since we’ve seen each other, it was wonderful to touch base, get up to date, and share family photos with each other.

November 23 - I traveled to New Jersey again, this time to attend a meeting with the sisters of Theta Eta chapter at Rider University. We had a blast remembering our Phi Sig history. After the meeting, I toured the house which is very impressive. Thank you to the women at Theta Eta for allowing me to visit where I had such a good time!

November 24 – I was honored to have lunch with Past Grand Archon and Phi Sig icon, Veachey Rudolph Bloom. If you think I tell good stories, then you haven’t had the pleasure of hearing Veachey speak. I could listen to Veachey talk all day and all night about her Phi Sig experiences…she’s a Phi Sig treasure!

November 24 – For my final visit, I was honored to attend a very lovely ritual meeting at Gamma Xi chapter at Widener University. Following the meeting, we had a question and answer session, and then I toured the Manor, their beautiful home. Thanks to all my Gamma Xi sisters for a terrific evening!

It’s been a whirlwind couple of weeks, but an extremely exhilarating experience. Our chapters continue to aim high and I know our Founders would be so proud of them. Thanks to everyone for hosting me with such warmth and enthusiasm.

One thing is for sure, our DONORS ROCK!! Look out, Nash may be dropping by to see you soon!

Foundation Executive Director Nancy Hay, a.k.a. “Nash”, Is On the Road in Philly

Nash has hit the road and has been a blogging maniac! See below for her latest stories and news!

Greetings from Nash. I’m currently in Philadelphia where it has been my great pleasure to meet and visit with so many wonderful Phi Sig collegians and alumnae.

November 14 - I began my “Donors Rock” tour with a trip to Stevenson College in Owings Mills, MD to attend Zeta Chi Chapter’s Basket Bingo. I was honored to meet the sisters and their advisors, families and friends at this fantastic fundraiser. This event was not only fun, but it raised thousands of dollars for the Foundation. Congratulations to the chapter on a job well done and thank you for all your support.

November 16 - I was delighted to attend the Founders’ Day luncheon hosted by the Philadelphia Alumnae Chapter. Check out all the details here.

November 17 – After having met all the local chapter reps at the Philly Founders’ Day celebration, I set out to visit each chapter on their own campus. My first stop was Beta Rho chapter, my alma mater Drexel University.

I was quite impressed with the growth of the university which has so many new buildings that I hardly recognized it. It was so nice to meet the chapter, tour their house, and chat with the sisters about how the university has changed since I was in school. Thank you Beta Rhos for hosting me and allowing me to share some of my most cherished memories!

November 18 - I traveled to Xi Chapter at Temple University, where I was thrilled to meet some of the sisters at the dining hall for lunch. While eating, we had a blast playing Phi Sig Jeopardy, and the sisters who answered the questions correctly were rewarded with prizes. After lunch, I toured the house which is very impressive. Thank you to the women at Xi for taking time out of your busy schedules to show me such a good time!

November 19 - I was so pleased to meet with Xi alumna Sue Bleznak Weisberg, an old friend and former Convention Chairman for the Fraternity. It was delightful to catch up with this Foundation donor and special sister!

Stay tuned for more of Nash’s travels!

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!

Founders' Day Campaign

First, the quiz...

Which Phi Sig Founder:

...graduated from high school at age 11?
...became a textile designer and an interior designer?
...worked as a hospital volunteer and was bilingual?
...was the first founder to pass away?
...aspired to be a dancer/actress?
...wrote most of the Fraternity's ritual?

Whether or not you remember all their names and achievements, I know you remember our Founders' collective vision...the advancement of womanhood. You embrace it every time you act with sisterhood in mind. Nothing can separate us!

So now, the question...

Will you continue the tradition you began last Founders' Day by joining our second annual Founders' Day Campaign? This important effort is raising gifts of $19.13 or more to directly benefit the Phi Sigma Sigma Foundation's ACHIEVE leadership initiative and educational grants. The contribution you made last year helped raise nearly $20,000 - an amount that far exceeded our highest expectations!

Our Zeta Tau Chapter Archon, Julie, tells what ACHIEVE meant for her this past year:

"This series of workshops definitely helped me focus on techniques to develop and implement chapter objectives. We worked on an action plan for our standards board to monitor chapter morale and oversee activities. We also established a "24-hour rule," meaning if there is disagreement or tension, sisters allow themselves 24 hours to think through their thoughts and ideas rather than instantly reacting..."

This Loyola University Chicago senior has helped double her chapter size in two years, with 90 sisters and tons of positive response from members, Headquarters and their host campus. And, Julie is just one of our collegiate chapter leaders who benefited from the program. Some 750 collegiate sisters participated in ACHIEVE last year alone. Wow!

Joining the 2008 Founders' Day Campaign by November 26th will put a tax-deductible gift to work immediately to fund the ACHIEVE leadership module and educational grants for deserving sisters. We need YOU if we hope to reach this year's goal to increase donors and dollars by 10%. It's easy to do right now... (1) find the answers to our Founders' Day quiz and (2) tell us your answer to our Founders' Day question!

Lunch with the LA Alumnae Chapter!

The Adventure Continues!

Here's the latest installment from Kim and Judith!

It’s Sunday morning and our trip to west coast is coming to an end as we prepare to fly home to Virginia. Yesterday it was my honor to meet with the sisters from Theta Upsilon at the University of La Verne and the sisters from Epsilon Delta at Chapman University. Both chapters are very generous supporters and I was thrilled to talk to them about their hard work for the Foundation, how their gifts are used, and thank them for making what we do possible.

The Theta Upsilon’s got up early to meet with me before heading out to their Make a Difference

Day event; meeting with foster teens to talk about career planning. What a terrific activity!

Our Chapman sisters presented me with a many personalized cards wishing the athletes good luck at the Games for Phi Sigs to distribute in 2010. They have made these cards during philanthropic recruitment and we couldn’t be more grateful for their support.

Early in the afternoon, Judith and I had lunch with representatives from the LA alumnae chapter. It was wonderful to see these sisters talk about Foundation and share alumnae activity ideas.

We could not let this fabulous weekend come to an end without expressing our sincere and heartfelt thanks to Carol Schwartz (Zeta, UCLA) and her husband Lee for hosting Phyllis and our oral history interviewees at their home these past three days. Their home has served as “Phi Sig central” since Carol’s days as a sister at UCLA and over the years Carol and Lee have hosted many events for collegians, alumnae, and even members of the area alumnae panhellenic where Carol has long-served as a member. Carol and Lee could not have been more gracious and we cannot thank them enough.

Good Morning, this is Judith writing now. Our time here has been filled with fun, excitement for Phi Sigma Sigma, and tremendous enthusiasm. I spent time talking with Sandy Wesler Warner (Zeta ’66) who was a senior when I was a freshman. She brought her pledge class scrapbook, and I saw the faces of Sisters I had not seen since they left school to graduate! The warm feelings, friendships, and life experiences these Sisters have shared since their graduation in the mid 1960s is wonderful to discover, and to know that they were based on their Phi Sigma Sigma membership. I also spoke with Sandy’s mother, Marge, who is also a Zeta, class of 1939, who remembers her collegiate experiences with great fondness. How special for me to be able to hear her comments and to share these precious memories over the span of years!

Even Phyllis Has the Blogging Bug!

Phyllis Dreyfuss, Beta Alpha, shared this wonderful blog with us. As you will recall, Phyllis is our oral historian and has made the trip west with Kim and Judith.

Hi. I’m Phyllis Dreyfuss, an alumna from Beta Alpha, University of Maryland, and have been privileged to be the Fraternity’s oral historian since 2002. My responsibilities have taken me to many parts of the country to meet with sisters that included all from recent graduates to those who graduated as early as 1939.

Kim, Judith and I arrived in Los Angeles on Thursday, and thus began my first series of oral histories on the West Coast. The process requires some background research to determine the role the potential interviewee played within their chapter and perhaps, nationally, either as an active, an alum or both. Once identified as being able to provide information that may help us trace our history in a way that is more personal and anecdotal than that found in the written word, our Headquarters handles the necessary releases and makes appointments for me to speak in person with our selected sister. Judith, Kim and I review the basics of my interview guide and off I go…………off to meet and have a very private conversation that include, a sister I’ve never met before and a tape recorder.

Much of what I learn serves as new insights into what makes us a diverse group to be proud of….the stories of how we have learned to work together, live together and make a difference on our campus, in our community and for our fraternity….and serves as a window as much to our past as it is to our future. We shall keep you posted on how we can best use the information we have been gathering as part of our Centennial celebration. In addition, we will keep you posted on some of the very funny experiences we have had traveling together from the East Coast….ask any of us about Factor’s Deli and we can repeat.

Kim Visits Chapman University

Kim shared this wonderful picture of the Chapman University chapter! What a great group!

More from Kim and Judith's Excellent Adventure!

Here's more news from Kim and Judith!

Well, we have finished day number two in paradise. Our day began with dropping Phyllis off at the lovely home of Carol Schwartz (Zeta, UCLA) who is hosting Phyllis as she completes her oral histories. Carol is one of the interviewees as well!

Judith and I then headed out to see Wendy Lau and Tara Ervin, both Theta Upsilons, La Verne University. As generous donors we had lots to thank them for and received some terrific feedback from both as we explained some of the new ways Foundation is reaching out to alumnae to find both a cause and giving program that is customized for each individual donor.

We then headed to California State University at Dominguez Hills. There we spoke at a chapter meeting – can you believe these women have their meetings at 6:30pm each Friday? But what was so wonderful was that it was family night (such a cool idea) where the chapter hosts their families as they attend a meeting, make tee shirts for new members, make posters, and of course have dinner. It was such an honor for Judith and I to meet all our Iota Gamma sisters and their families. The chapter invited us to make a few remarks, which we did. Judith shared her experience as a parent of a Phi Sig and I spoke about Phi Sig’s founding, our core values, the important of inclusiveness, our new member programming, and what it means to be a part of our larger Phi Sig family. Of course I also talked about how the chapter’s generous gifts are put to work for fund scholarships and educational grants, leadership programming to develop sisters and strengthen chapters and to help those with kidney disease. Thank you Iota Gammas for hosting us and congratulations on a fabulous event!

More news Saturday!

Foundation Visits California!

Judith Distler and Kim Hildred took to the road to visit California this weekend. Here's a blog post straight from the two of them that they wrote in between meetings with our sisters!

We arrived in paradise yesterday, Los Angeles, CA. We are here to spread lots of Foundation love. Joining us is Phyllis Dreyfuss (Beta Alpha, University of Maryland), our oral historian.

Some of you may know that the Foundation has undertaken an oral history project where Phyllis is interviewing past Grand Archons, former Supreme Council (SC) officers and other volunteers – past and present – and other sisters so that we may have the story of Phi Sigma Sigma’s history told in words of our own. Phyllis will be interviewing alumnae from our Zeta chapter at UCLA, our Mu chapter at Berkley and our Beta Tau chapter at California State University – Northridge. Included will be Marge Wesler, a former SC officer from the 1940s. Wow!

We have jam-packed schedule this weekend. Last night, Judith and I visited our sisters from Zeta Alpha, Woodbury University, in Burbank, CA. The sisters took Judith and I to dinner after a mini-tour of their beautiful campus to CA’s own “Shakeys” a pizza place with wonderful food. There, we learned all about the chapter’s philanthropic work, fundraising, and other activities while we dined on Hawaiian pizza and mojos – amazing potatoes. We were thrilled to meet the chapter’s new members and one of our very own scholarship winners who won the Michelle Stacey Friedman Scholarship.

This is so invigorating for us; the Zeta Alphas were wonderful and so happy to have visitors! This chapter has an up close understanding of how Foundation serves the Sisterhood. Today we head on down the freeway to visit our Orange County sisters. More adventures will follow!

Good News From Iota Gamma (CSU Dominguez Hills)!

Thanks to Carolyn, the CKA for the Iota Gamma chapter for sharing this great news with us!

The Iota Gamma and the Southern Los Angeles County Alumnae Chapters are working with the Cal State University, Dominguez Hills Institute for Cultural Diversity (ICD) for Sight Night 2008. As part of Make a Difference Day we decided to change it to Make a Difference Month. For the complete month of October members of the collegiate and Alumnae chapters and the ICD will be collecting used eyeglasses, store bought reading glasses, sunglasses, and eye glass cases that will then be donated to the Lions Club. These will then be refurbished and distributed to needy people throughout the world.

This has become an annual event that the 3 groups do together on the campus of CSU Dominguez Hills.

Delta Sigma (SUNY-Brockport) is Making A Difference!

The Foundation would like to thank the sisters at Delta Sigma for this awesome update! If you have news to share, please don't hesitate to contact the Foundation at foundation@phisigmasigma.org!

Because members from Delta Sigma Chapter at SUNY Brockport volunteered at the Transplant Games and they were able to meet athletes from the hometown team - NKF of Upstate asked if members of the chapter would help volunteer at the recent NKF Walk. The walk took place on Saturday, September 27th at Seneca Park Zoo in Rochester.

We had over 28 active and alumnae volunteers who signed up. NKF was very pleased with the response as we had more women participate than what was requested. Last year chapter members actually walked and this year they were happy to help as volunteers. They hope to make this an annual event.

We were able to catch up with some of the Team Upstate athletes including Bonnie who was featured on the blog during the games. We are also fortunate to have a chapter sister, Alli Williams who is currently completing an internship as a special events assistant with NKF of Upstate in Rochester.

Alli had this to say, "I am SO PROUD and grateful for everyone who volunteered to take part in this event on a Saturday morning!"

Aiming Higher: The Annual Appeal to Benefit Our Foundation

Click Here to Make a Lasting Gift to the Foundation.

Make A Difference Day -- Saturday, October 25, 2008

By now, you have probably heard about the Foundation's participation in Make A Difference Day...after all, we have received national recognition for our participation in the past!

This year, we want YOU in on the action. We are calling all collegiate chapters, alumnae chapters and even just group of sisters and friends to help make this one of the biggest Make A Difference Day events for Phi Sigma Sigma!

To help you get started, the Foundation has created a step-by-step guide to choosing the right project. You can access our guide by clicking here. You can also get more information by visiting our website at http://www.phisigmasigmafoundation.org/service.htm.

After you complete your project, be sure to tell us about it by leaving a comment on the blog or by emailing us at foundation@phisigmasigma.org. We will be featuring chapters for their awesome work on our blog and website to be sure to pass along your information so we can feature YOU!

To learn more about Make A Difference Day, visit their official website by clicking here.

Foundation is Honored by the North-American Interfraternity Conference Foundation

The Foundation is proud to announce that we received The North-American Interfraternity Conference award for the "Annual Campaign - Best e-Mail Package." Congratulations to the Foundation, but a special congratulations to our fabulous donors who helped make our Founders' Day Campaign a huge success!

You can read more about our award here: http://www.pursuantgroup.com/nic/2008/alt/awardsb.htm.