University of Wyoming Greek Life Gives Back This Holiday Season
This week, the University of Wyoming’s Sigma Phi Epsilon and Sigma Nu chapters teamed up for a week-long joint philanthropy event. Following the spirit of the Christmas season, the chapters chose holiday-themed ways to give back by organizing a food drive for those in need, collecting toys for children who may go without this year, and wrapping up the week with a festive cookie-decorating competition.
On Monday, Nov. 18, the two chapters kicked off the week with a canned food drive at the Sigma Nu chapter house. The atmosphere was lively, with members decorating the halls, hanging lights, playing Christmas music and gathering donations.
Tayton Keller, a brother at Sigma Phi Epsilon, explained the motivation for the week’s events, noting: “We tried to find an event that would be extremely collaborative that people would enjoy, involving some kind of festive activity and getting everyone into the Christmas spirit.”
Sigma Phi Epsilon
On Wednesday, Nov. 19, members from both chapters gathered outside the Student Union for their “Pie a Brother” fundraiser. Their flier noted that every $5 pie tossed at a brother would go toward supporting Wounded Warriors.
“We noticed that we had a common love for our troops this winter season, especially when we’re thinking about the government shutdown and how we can give back,” Damion Rios, a brother at Sigma Nu, said when asked about the two chapters’ collaborations.
Connor Buchanan, another brother at Sigma Phi Epsilon added, “Everything goes to the Wounded Warrior Project, our campus food drive, and toys for tots.”
Throughout the week, the flier also shared a point system, a way to incentivize sororities and fraternities to compete more in helping support their cause. The three fraternity members shared that whichever house gets the most tallied points at the end of the week would also get a donation to their national philanthropy. That donation added roughly $400 to $500 to their organization.
Keller also stated, to encourage those involved, “Even if you aren’t going to contribute directly to our philanthropy, being a part of any kind of donating this Christmas season would be extremely beneficial to everybody around you.”
Rios went on to say, “this philanthropy is not something that you need to be in any kind of Greek organization to support. No matter what, each day [of the philanthropy week] is going to a good cause.”
Even with Sigma Phi Epsilon’s house gone, Sigma Nu brothers noted that the event highlighted Sig Ep’s ability to rally together and raise money, no matter how spread out their members may be.
“Even with Sigma Phi Epsilon unfortunately losing their Greek house, we can still have great numbers, raise lots of money and keep our holiday season festive, regardless of the university demolishing Sigep’s house or not,” Rios said. “Sigep has easily shown their worth here on campus, especially with philanthropy, showing that they can work together to this extent with another fraternity to raise the most amount of money and create the most amount of general benefit for the entire Laramie community without a Greek house.”
The two fraternities expressed their enthusiasm to collaborate again in the future, mentioning that they hope to pursue philanthropic events every year, if not each semester.
