Aca-Central brings A cappella competition, fundraiser to CMU
It was a battle of the vocals Friday night in the Moore Hall Kiva.
Three A cappella groups competed against each other to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital at an Aca-Central event hosted by local service sorority Zeta Theta Pi.
“(St. Jude Children's Research Hospital) has been our philanthropy since we were founded in 2007, so we’ve always done fundraisers for them," said Zeta Theta Pi’s president and Midland senior Kendra Engwis. "Now we’re pushing to raise as much money as possible for them.”
The idea to host an A cappella concert came to the sorority after watching the movie “Pitch Perfect.”
“One of our sisters brought up how cool it would be to have 'Pitch Perfect' at CMU,” Engwis said. “At first, we thought it was a crazy idea, but then we got started getting groups to perform and it all kind of fell together.”
Once Zeta Theta Pi had formed a concrete plan, they contacted multiple schools in Michigan to participate in the competition.
“Once we had the idea, I meet with the groups on campus. I went on other schools' websites and found their A cappella groups. I emailed them to get as many people interested as we could,” said Zeta Theta Pi’s Fundraising Chair and Lake Orion senior Jessica Rendon.
Some of Central Michigan University's A cappella groups, including On the Rox and Central Harmony, as well as Amazin' Blue from the University of Michigan sang songs ranging from Lorde’s hit “Royals” to popular Disney songs.
After each performance, crowd members donated money in support of their favorite group, and the group that collected the most donations won.
The groups were each awarded prizes for first, second and third place. Prizes included donations from local businesses like Tim Hortons, Insomnia Cookies, Dragon Express and Big Apple Bagels.
Central Harmony ended up taking the first place trophy, donated by Simply Engraving in downtown Mount Pleasant. Amazin' Blue took second and On the Rox came in third.
Zeta Theta Pi is a frequent donor to the children’s hospital. They raised a grand total of $340.02 from the A cappella concert. So far this semester, the sorority has raised $550 total for the hospital.
The hard work the group puts in is worth it when they receive thank you notes for all they are doing.
“We get a lot of recognition, which is nice as far as the letters they send because they aren’t typed carbon copies. They’re all handwritten,” Engwis said. “Last semester, we raised $1,600 so we’re hoping to beat that this semester.”
The sorority hopes to purchase a brick in the Pathway to Hope outside of St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in Tennessee.
For Central Harmony member and Waterford sophomore Maddy McCafferty, Aca-Central was more than just a competition.
“It’s very close to heart for me. I’m a cancer survivor myself. Anything I can do to raise money for this particular cause I am all for,” McCafferty said. “I loved it. It’s fun to meet new people and have the chance to sing. It was just an awesome experience.”
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