Michigan ATOs Take Second Place in Greek Week

COLONY (Michigan) — The University’s Greek community is set to donate about $75,000 to six charities after Greek Life members participated in a variety of fundraising efforts during this year’s Greek Week.

Greek Week — a 10-day event in which teams of fraternities and sororities compete to earn points and raise money — culminated last night at the Sing and Variety 2011 competition at Hill Auditorium, where the winning teams were announced.

Sing and Variety 2011 — an event in which teams performed various musical and dance arrangements in their efforts to capture the competition’s final points — was the deciding factor for the winning teams this year, according to LSA senior Monica Stoney, a co-director of Greek Week.

Team Treasure Island — made up of Alpha Gamma Delta, Pi Kappa Phi and Pi Lambda Phi — took first place in the Greek Week points competition. Team Planet Hollywood that included Zeta Tau Alpha, Alpha Tau Omega and Phi Gamma Delta and Team New York New York that consisted of Delta Delta Delta, Chi Psi, Pi Kappa Alpha and Tau Kappa Epsilon came in second and third places, respectively.

Team Excalibur won the “Sing” portion of the event, while Team New York New York won the “Variety” category. The judges included Mary Beth Seiler, the University’s director of Greek Life, and Darius Morris, a point guard on the Michigan men’s basketball team.

The proceeds from Greek Week will go to six charities that were chosen by the steering committee, according to Engineering senior Patrick Metzger, the other Greek Week co-director. This year’s charities, which will each receive one-sixth of the money raised, include the Peace Neighborhood Center, Detroit Action Commonwealth, The St. Baldrick’s Foundation, The Jalen Rose Charitable Fund, Ele’s Place and the Bo Schembechler Heart of a Champion Research Fund.

T-shirt and ticket sales as well as corporate sponsorships with companies like Domino’s Pizza and Kaplan account for most of the revenue generated during Greek Week, Metzger said.

“I would say (this year’s Greek Week) was more successful than other years,” Metzger said. “We definitely aren’t the highest grossing in terms of money raised, but we’ve definitely done more in the area of community service.”

Greek Week teams amassed more than 825 hours of community service during the course of the semester, according to Metzger. In a blood drive during the week, he said 264 units of blood were collected, with Greek community members donating about 80 percent of those units.

In addition to raising money for charity, the teams also volunteered their time by cooking dinner for families at the Ronald McDonald House, going ice skating with underprivileged youth and organizing a canned food drive.

“Every year we have success raising money, but when we can measure success in other ways, it feels like Greek Week is more meaningful,” Metzger said.

He added that Greek Week isn’t just about winning points or raising money, but also about bringing the University’s Greek community together.

Kinesiology sophomore Amy Marks, a member of Chi Omega sorority, echoed Metzger’s sentiments, saying she finds Greek Week to be a great way to unite University community members for a good cause.

“It’s just a nice way to bring every member of the Greek community together to give to charities that are really in need,” Marks said.