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Chi
,→The Early Years (Excerpted from The History of Kappa Kappa Gamma Fraternity: 1870 to 1976)
In 1914, a joint alumnae-active venture, the Kappa Christmas Bazaar, netted $200 for the fund to begin a chapter house. The next year, a vaudeville was presented by the actives. This grew into a combination of the two: the Kappa Fair, with items for sale, vaudeville presentation in the afternoon, and dancing in the evening. In 1920, the fair netted $1200, but by this time it was sponsored completely by the alumnae. The vaudeville, however, continued under chapter auspices. The 1924 version of these Follies was held at the Women's Club of Minneapolis. University men supported the Kappas in the production: "Martin Koon Bovey and his choristers were deluged with cabbage and tomatoes in the first act, but the audience behaved nicely after that."
In 1916, Chi members were performing their skits before children at settlement houses, but by the mid-twenties chapter social service was assuming a more personal relationship. Chis participated in the Panhellenic-sponsored project of sewing flannel pajamas for "poor little boys and girls." The traditional Chi Christmas party became a party for children with gifts of toys, along with warm clothing collected from their families. The Depression years of the 1930s intensified these efforts: items for Christmas baskets were gathered and presented to needy families, along with gift bags of coal. Always, during these years, children were entertained at the chapter house at the Christmas party. During both wars, Chis "pitched in" to the war effort. In 1917, favors given to rushees were items for a "Comfort Kit," and each freshman was asked to send hers to a soldier. The chapter was asked to catalogue the cards for all nurses in Minnesota, a task which they accomplished with pride in just three weeks. They contributed to the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Fund for French war orphans; and they sewed chemises for those same orphans in the attic, which had been converted to a sewing room. World War II brought similar emergency activities to the chapter, along with some more tangible necessities. Each girl was required to bring one cup of sugar to the house per month. Town girls were asked to eat at the house only twice weekly, due to the food shortage. Members were to bring fat and tin cans to the house for collections. Every Kappa signed up as a blood donor. Chis sold "warsages" (war stamp corsages) at the Homecoming football games. After World War II, public awareness increased on campus, as it did across the nation. The university, itself, was bursting with new students, returning veterans, and new buildings. Organized activity reached its peak. There was Greek Week, during which all the Greek societies performed some sort of social service as well as had fun and entertainment. Homecoming activities greatly expanded, along with the university-sponsored Snow Week in the winter and Campus Carnival in the spring. "Formals," the housemother's tea, the dads' brunch and the mothers' tea were, by now, traditional. Annual chapter membership had grown during the war years to around 60. No longer were even the actives acquainted with each other in the intimate way that was possible earlier. The chapter house was nearly 50 years old by the 1960s. Its capacity had been stretched to the limit. Strict rules of seniority determined which actives could live in. In 1962, a large house on an adjacent lot was purchased and remodeled for use as an annex, so that nearly half the chapter could be housed in the two buildings. In the late 1960s, came the unrest caused by the Vietnam conflict and the drastically changing attitudes of students. This affected Chi, as it did the entire university community. Many students preferred to share an apartment off-campus than to live under the rules of the chapter house. It became difficult for the chapter to make ends meet financially. Not only had the influence of sororities and fraternities on the campus waned almost to the zero point over the past ten years, but those actives who remained faithful seemed to wish to conceal their loyalty. Keys were no longer worn as badges of honor and chapter rules were stretched in order to keep the chapter alive. Alumnae, puzzled and distressed by the turn of events, watched and waited while other sororities were forced to rent their rooms to non-members - or disband altogether. There simply were not enough interested girls on the campus of 40,000 students to sustain 20 sororities. By 1972 only 14 remained. Two years later, however, the tide turned. More quickly than the decline came the beginnings of a "Greek Revival." The desire for the kind of university life that sororities can offer had resurged. Traditional goals of friendship, unity and loyalty within the Fraternity were again actively being espoused. It would appear that the future course of Chi will be a blending of the traditional and the adaptive. Begun by a small, socially-knit group of friends forming a club on a struggling, intimate campus, Chi must now provide a compatible and congenial fellowship for a comparatively few girls on an enormous campus of 300 buildings and over 41,000 students. Perhaps the Chis of old wanted and needed to establish their place in their world - a male-dominated community in which they, as intelligent women, were demanding an equal foothold. Today the university is a community in itself: its 70,000 students, faculty and personnel nearly equal the entire population of the Twin Cities in the spring of 1880 when Chi was chartered. It may well be that Chi's existence is more viable today than ever before. It provides a commonality of spirit, a sisterhood, in which each member is able to preserve her individuality while seeking an identity among the multitude.
==Highlights of 2011==