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→Highlights of 2018
This first semester was amazing for the women of Theta Beta. We are all looking forward to informal recruitment this spring, and the future of Kappa Kappa Gamma here at Illinois State.
==Highlights of 2019==
This year, Theta Beta was fortunate enough to receive our chapter housing facility. We are now located on 904 West Hovey Avenue, Normal, Illinois. We are also the first house ran by the Fraternity Housing Corporation. We had our grand opening this fall on October 12th. Gail Owen, Beth Black, and many more headquarters representatives came to give Theta Beta their blessing and welcomed us to the FHC. Our house is full and we feel more than blessed for this opportunity to expand our own chapter as well as expand Kappa nationally.
We kicked off this year with a very successful first primary recruitment. Our VP Membership and her team worked very hard to make sure we recruited the most amazing women to help mold our chapter. We recruited more than 50 new members and celebrated with a Kappa Karnival themed Bid Day. We all rewarded ourselves for our hard work with cotton candy and snow cones.
Our member development department worked hard on promoting knowledge of mental health this semester. We participated in the EME training, Behind Happy Faces. Our chapter benefited greatly from this experience. It allowed us to all relate to each other on a different level. Our New Member Experience Director worked hard with the New Members and taught them about all the pillars in Kappa and prepared them to be initiated.
Initiation came around the corner faster than we expected. With such a large new member class we were worried about space. Our VP Internal worked very relentlessly on making sure everything went perfect. We initiated 49 new members and we are happy to call them our Beta Class.
We had some very exciting events this semester as well. We had our first ever semi-formal and formal. All of our women and their dates were so excited to dance the night away. In the spring we held a Women’s Day Brunch to honor all of the amazing women in our lives and thank them for their support. This fall, we shook things up a little and tailgated with our dudes for Dudes Day. It was so nice to see all of the support from the amazing men and women in our lives.
Throughout the semester there have been many ups and downs. Our sisterhood can fade and morale can go down. In order to boost it back up, we had plenty of sisterhood events. We went to our local Pumpkin Patch, Radar Farms, and took tons of cute pictures and sipped on some warm apple cider while enjoying the beautiful fall weather. We also went to a lake and had a nice little campfire with s’mores, games, and more. Other events we have done this semester are Kappa’s Plant, A White Elephant Gift Exchange, a movie night with Sigma Sigma Sigma, bowling with Delta Zeta, and paintballing with Sigma Pi.
We have also participated in many philanthropy events this semester. Our members supported other chapters on campus by participating in Bags for Mag and A Bootcamp for Alpha Omicron Pi, The Diamond Bowl for Alpha Delta Pi, March Madness for Chi Omega, and many more events. This year was the kick off to our annual Kappa Kupcakes event. We had cupcakes and cookies for people to come in and decorate them. It was a fun and social event for people in our community to support RIF and our local Bent Elementary School. We also participated in Walk Out of the Darkness for AFSP. Our Kappa team raised over $4,000 that was donated to AFSP. We felt very proud to be able to support so many amazing causes and help out our own community and Greek Community.
Our chapter is also going to begin to support Project Oz. Project Oz is an organization that is dedicated to helping youth and families. They reunite families, help kids stay in school. They provide counseling, education and career planning. Our chapter is very excited to begin raising funds to support this cause.
Theta Beta was fortunate enough to have the Minnie Stewart Van come and visit our chapter. All of our members were given the opportunity to tour the van and check out the virtual reality walk through of the history of Kappa Kappa Gamma. We were able to reflect on the amazing past that came before Theta Beta.
As our first year of being chartered comes to an end, it is interesting to think of the 150 years that Kappa is now approaching. We hope to celebrate and cherish the history that had made Kappa Kappa Gamma what it is today.
This past term was very exciting. We had a lot of fun and will cherish the events and bonds we have made in our first year. Theta Beta hopes to continue to grow and prosper here at Illinois State University.