A weeklong festival pitting Western’s fraternities and sororities in a variety of fun-filled competitions, Greek Week also provides an opportunity for the university’s Greek letter organizations to get involved in community service and fund-raising activities, said Ryan Williams, coordinator of student organizations and Greek life.
“Twelve is the number of hours that students, faculty and staff walked for cancer awareness at Relay for Life,” said Williams. “Fifty-five is the number of gallons of can tabs collected to help fund the Ronald McDonald House, which is estimated to be up from last year’s count of more than 300,000 can tabs.”
Greek letter organizations collected 1,645 articles of clothing to be donated to REACH of Jackson County to support the agency’s efforts to combat sexual assault and domestic violence. Fraternities and sororities raised $2,156 for the American Cancer Society through the Relay for Life, with another $1,000 raised by the groups prior to Greek Week. The Greeks collected 2,933 non-perishable food items for donation to the Community Table.
“Though Greeks compete in events such as the Greek God and Goddess Pageant and Greek Games, Greek Week serves as a visible focus for the philanthropy and community service that each of the 19 fraternity and sorority organizations do year round,” said Anita Pardo, member of Alpha Xi Delta sorority and co-chair for Greek Week 2003. “Greek Week is a time for us to come together and have fun, but also to give back to the community that gives us so much. We are fortunate we are able to call Cullowhee and Sylva our home while at Western.”
