Southern Miss. Greeks Are Killing It With Their Philanthropy

Bronan the Barbarian12 years ago

From our favorite pledge brother to that asshole in chapter who always drags out the discussion with pointless comments, we all have some oath to our chapter we take during pledgeship to help and support all of our brothers. Delta Tau Delta at Southern Miss. has apparently not forgotten this obligation, hosting their 23rd annual event benefiting cystic fibrosis research, originally started to help a brother suffering with the disease. Last year, they raised $40,000, which is no small chunk of change.

Our first chapter president, Stephen Richards, has the disease and is one of the oldest living people with it,” said Hunter Nichols, a senior sport coaching major and member of Delta Tau Delta. “He is still very involved in our chapter and is like a father to us.

It’s impressive that they’ve built this event up to be this big over the years, and it all originally started just by trying to help out a single brother suffering from the disease. Especially since they’ve been able to have a direct impact in actually keeping him alive. Cystic fibrosis, if you don’t already know, fucking sucks. It’s genetic, so there is no cure for it other than experimental therapy using viruses to replace the bad gene. I’ve seen this movie, and it ends with Will Smith and zombies, so we definitely want to pump all the money we can into it to avoid that scenario.

This is really good work, though. That kind of money is enough to fund at least the salary of one researcher in the field, or to help a lab cover costs so they can focus more money on research and drug design.

That same day, Tri Delt and Pike were also hosting major philanthropy events benefiting great causes. Tri Delt hosted a sporting event for St. Jude’s, and Pike was donating to Give the Kids the World, which sends terminally ill kids to Disney World. All in all, it seems like the weekend in question was one incredibly successful philanthropy event after another.

Some of the cooler memories I’ll have from college are participating in some of these events. Nothing like the memories of dancing like an idiot at Anchor Splash, or nearly going delirious after 14 hours on my feet at Dance Marathon. Sure, the social stuff has been awesome, but as Greeks we also have a really unique opportunity to do something the independents can’t: mobilize a lot of support and money to help other people. At the end of the day, we make a difference in people’s lives, and look good doing it.

Now, we just have to get this stuff into the mainstream news alongside stories about people operating drug empires out of their houses, and trying to invent creative new ways to drink using their colons. We need a Greek PR ambassador or something. Nominations for PR Ambassador in the comments? I’m probably going to regret asking this question.

[via Student Printz]