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→Highlights of 2016
We began 2016 with a bang by having our Leadership Day to bring in the new officers for our Chapter Council. We hosted many recruitment events the last two weeks of January to hopefully bring us another great spring pledge class.
We also started off the month of February with a few more recruitment events that brought us four wonderful women for the Spring 2016 pledge class. We held our Spring Bid Day soon after to celebrate our new members, and the theme was Kappas Have S’more Fun! To complete this fun camping theme, we even brought a huge tent into the meeting room. We also held our first philanthropy event of the year, Kapparoni and Cheese, which is an event that was created and started by our Philanthropy Chairman in 2015. We decided to do it again this year and it was met with huge success. Many members of the Greek Community attended in support of us and our philanthropies. Our New Member Educator brought in a new system for getting to know the new members called Kappa Speed Dating, which was a really awesome way to help both the chapter and new members bond with each other better.
March began with the GLAs and was filled to the brim with philanthropy events, PHC events, and meetings. We had Big Little Reveal where our four new members happily joined their new families, and they began to feel even closer to Kappa. March was also the month that we started doing extension presentations to welcome another chapter onto our campus. We had a team of 10 sisters who regularly attended these presentations to help make the decision for our Panhellenic Community.
Our busiest month of the spring was April. We participated in many philanthropy events including Dance Marathon, an organization that many of our sisters were very involved with. We also participated in Relay for Life where we were one of the top organizations in raising donations. Our new member class also held a fundraiser of their own called Kappa Kornhole, and the next week was our Inspiration/Initiation Week, where all four of the members of Spring ’16 were initiated. We held our second philanthropy event of the year, Late Night Waffle Bar, this month as well. This was a brand new event for us that turned out to be a lot of fun not only for those who came to the event, but also for us as we had a great time making waffles and hanging out around the kitchen together. We created a team for Walk A Mile called the Blue Keys (much like the Black Keys, which is a famous Akron rock group) and many of our sisters raised money and attended the event. And finally, we ended our very busy month with a formal to get the stress off of our minds and dance the night away.
May was short and sweet for us as it marked the end of the semester. We participated in a few final philanthropy events and hosted our own philanthropy event. We brought back Kolor A Kappa again this year to end out our semester. We also had our senior night, where we said goodbye to our sisters who were going alum.
The summer time meant more time for our sisters to hang out by the pool, volunteer, and practice more of our favorite hobbies, which we did a lot of. It also meant some sisters went back home, which meant lots of road trips to see sisters that were further away. We also kepy up the philanthropic spirit by walking in the Kidney Walk in Cleveland with some of the Phi Taus, and participating in World Kidney Day. All day on June 29 our sisters shared facts about kidneys in support. To bond right before recruitment, there was even a pool party where many sisters hung out and reminded each other why they joined this amazing organization.
Before classes even started, recruitment started. In August, we were attending recruitment workshops, volunteering to help freshmen move in to the dorms, and talking to PNMs at the Ice Cream Social and Glow Party. September brought us recruitment, where we welcomed our Rho Gams back home and a Fall Pledge Class of 22 women to their new home. We celebrated the successful weeks of recruitment with a Drake Bid Day. You could find gold glitter in the house for months after this celebration. We had study nights, house dinners, sisterhoods, and Kappa Speed Dating to help the new members and actives bond and get to know each other well as they became a bigger and bigger part of the chapter.
We were also excited to welcome the newest chapter on to campus, Delta Zeta! We had a lot of fun going through some of the steps of recruitment with them, and helping them bring home a wonderful pledge class for their organization as well.
October proved to be the busiest month in the year for the Kappas, and we really had to stay on top of things this month to keep up with everything. We all took a trip to the Akron Zoo for our Chapter Retreat, and we all felt like little kids again, running around looking at animals and going down the slides with otters. Some of our sisters attended Alpha Phi’s Housing Ceremony for their new house, while others attended Delta Zeta’s Bid Day. We participated in Greek Week with Theta Chi, Delta Zeta, and Phi Delta Theta, which helped us to get to know members of the Greek Community that we may not have gotten to know before. We also hosted our first philanthropy event of the semester, Lemonade for Literacy, along with attending Soberfest, Kappa Sigma’s hockey fundraiser, Octoberfest, and Mocktails for Alcohol Awareness Week. We also had our Big Little Reveal as well, which gave our new members families to call their own. Many of our sisters also proudly took on the role of becoming a Big to a Delta Zeta Little as well, helping the DZs to feel like Akron really is home for them. And finally, we ended the crazy month by attending our cartoon themed Date Party held at the Score. Everyone came dressed as their favorite Kartoon Network character, and we had a great time!
The first week in November was Inspiration/Initiation Week and on November 5 we initiated 20 beautiful new women into the chapter. Things slowed down a bit for the chapter, but our sisters continued to participate in events, especially the Flag Football Game and Sweat for a Cause for Circle of Sisterhood. We partnered up with Alpha Sigma Phi to host a dodgeball tournament in the Field House on campus. We also got a brand new Chapter Council filled with many new faces that we know are going to bring brand new ideas and events to the chapter in the next year, and we can proudly support in their endeavors.
We ended the semester strongly, with many of our sisters gathering to study for finals and help each other succeed in any way possible. We sent off a group of seniors, and soon after we had our last philanthropy event of the year, Christmas with the Kappas. We did this event last year, and this year we brought it back for the second year right before Finals’ Week to help everyone take a break from all of the studying and get in the holiday spirit. The president of the university, President Wilson, even attended our event with his wife!
All in all, the morale of the chapter this year was very high. Our sisters were proactive in supporting other organizations on campus, and getting involved all over campus in the causes that they were passionate about. Many sisters were involved with the election, and strongly encouraged all members to go out and vote. Some were even involved with protests after the election. With the changing president of the university, there was a much more positive outlook for everyone on The University of Akron’s campus, and it was especially evident throughout the Greek Community as our new president become even more involved with our activities as well. 2016 was a great year to be a Lambda Kappa, and we are excited to see what 2017 has in store for us!