==Highlights of 2016==
2016 was a very exciting and eventful year for the Eta Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma! This year, Eta Chapter was especially strong in regards to academics. We moved up in the GPA rankings from ninth place all the way to fourth place! Additionally, one of our New Members was selected to receive the New Member Panhellenic Scholarship, so we were so excited to see our sister win! Our chapter still continues to participate in "Letters at the Library," the weekly Greek-wide event held to help promote academic excellence within the Greek community. We also participated in many fun sisterhood events throughout the year. We started "Cookie Mondays," a sisterhood event where girls could stay after chapter, eat cookies, and chat with other sisters. One of our chapter goals was to better promote the history of Kappa and we addressed this goal by bringing up old pictures and archives to display during chapter as well as implementing a time capsule for the New Members that they can recover after they graduate. Another chapter goal was to turn Founder's Day into a bigger and more recognizable event. This year, Founder's Day was hosted at Blackhawk Country Club and turned out to be a very successful event. This past fall, Eta Chapter initiated 52 outstanding women! We held an excellent recruitment this year and were thrilled to welcome our wonderful New Members. Our New Member Chair did an excellent job of educating these New Members on both the opportunities available in Kappa as well as Greek life as a whole. All New Members were required to attend an alcohol and sexual assault seminar hosted by the Greek community, which benefits our chapter immensely. Another big change that Eta Chapter underwent was transitioning house-moms after having our previous house-mom for over 15 years. While Karen is greatly missed, Mary Ann is doing a great job of keeping everything running smoothly at the house. Between our academic improvements, fun sisterhood events, successful philanthropies, and everything in between, Eta Chapter is constantly improving year after year. Our chapter is doing a nice job of recognizing where we need to improve and setting goals for the betterment of the chapter. We see this mindset of constant improvement transferring over to the new Chapter Council, as they are already setting goals of their own for their time as leaders of the chapter. We think that they will do a great job of continuing better our chapter every single day. Eta Chapter held philanthropic involvement at high importance this year. In the spring, we executed our annual philanthropy, Hoops for Hope. This event is a 3 on 3 basketball tournament and all proceeds go to the UW Children's Hospital. Not only does this event raise money for the Children's Hospital, but it is a nice opportunity to get many members of Greek life together to support a common cause. This fall we held our second annual "Grabba Grabba Pizza" philanthropy to benefit our national philanthropy, Reading Is Fundamental. For this event, members of Eta Chapter stood outside the Kappa house as well as on State Street and sold slices of pizza to those walking by. Unfortunately, a thunderstorm led us to cancel the event one hour earlier than expected, but we still were able to raise over $1,000 to donate to Reading Is Fundamental. Both of these philanthropies were incredibly successful and we are hoping for continued success in the years to come.
Eta Chapter held philanthropic involvement at high importance this year. In the spring, we executed our annual philanthropy, Hoops for Hope. This event is a 3 on 3 basketball tournament and all proceeds go to the UW Children's Hospital. Not only does this event raise money for the Children's Hospital, but it is a nice opportunity to get many members of Greek life together to support a common cause. This fall we held our second annual "Grabba Grabba Pizza" philanthropy to benefit our national philanthropy, Reading Is Fundamental. For this event, members of Eta Chapter stood outside the Kappa house as well as on State Street and sold slices of pizza to those walking by. Unfortunately, a thunderstorm led us to cancel the event one hour earlier than expected, but we still were able to raise over $1,000 to donate to Reading Is Fundamental. Both of these philanthropies were incredibly successful and we are hoping for continued success in the years to come.
Our chapter continues to support organizations within our community such as the UW Children’s Hospital, River Food Pantry, First Harvest Food Bank and the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County. Our chapter chooses to support these organizations because we want to support organizations within our community and see our community thrive. Our philanthropies are a great opportunity to give back to the community and help those around us. We love being able to see the effects of our service and philanthropies in our community.