AXO raises most money for Derby Days
Alpha Chi Omega ran away with the victory in this year’s Derby Days competition, in which sororities teamed up with Sigma Chi to raise over $7,000 for the Huntsman Cancer Institute.
The six-day marathon of group events took place from Nov. 1-7. Scoring nearly 2,000 more points than the next sorority, Zeta Tau Alpha-Alpha Chi secured a $1,000 reward from Sigma Chi for its philanthropy programs.
Alpha Chi Omega President, Ashley Williams, said that the sisters plan to donate the entirety of their winnings to domestic violence awareness. This has been their national organization’s philanthropy focus since 1992.
“This is an opportunity not only to support Sigma Chi, but ($1,000) will be a huge help to us,” the senior said.
The group independently raised $4,000 to promote domestic violence awareness in October and is eager to help even more. Alpha Chi’s other philanthropy events include Healthy Relationship Week in February and a still-in-progress anti-domestic violence video that focuses on the issue from a Central Michigan University's perspective
The events of Derby Days ranged from a pageant that lit up the Broadway Theater to a Date Auction at Wayside Central. Sisters earned points by donating money, winning contests and participating in special weeklong efforts such as Penny Wars and by ordering Derby Days shirts.
“Our date auction alone raised $4,000,” said Sophomore Tyler Grinblatt, the president of Sigma Chi. “I ran it last year, and that was one of our biggest years. This year is just blowing it out of the water.”
The week-long competition was organized by junior John Glazier, Sigma Chi’s philanthropy chair.
“It really feels nice to say that we raised over $7,000 on campus,” Glazier said.
Glazier described the feeling of being finished with Derby Days as "bittersweet."
“This has probably been my favorite out of all of them. (There’s been) a lot more involvement from the sorority community as a whole,” said senior Sigma Chi brother Blake Foster.
Foster’s fourth and last Derby Days was by far the most memorable, he said, bringing out record numbers in both fundraising and participation.
“It really makes you realize what you can really do if everyone participates, how much you can raise and how much you can help out others,” said Senior Josh Greenhalge, a member of Sigma Chi’s philanthropy committee who emceed the pageant and the date auction.
The inclusion of Twitter and other social media elements into the contest gave the competition more of a buzz, Glazier explained. Events such as Tag-A-Sig, which took place on Tuesday, Nov. 4, had sisters running around campus taking pictures with members of Sigma Chi and uploading them for points.
The Sigma Chi brothers also praised the Now app, made by Keeply Inc., for donating $500 dollars to the cause.
