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→Highlights of the 2020s
==Highlights of the 2020s==
Convention Awards: National Philanthropy Award – Large Chapter
Traditions: This year we did not get to do many of our traditions such as the end of Recruitment Workshop Waterslide and Snow Cone Party and the Virginia Gray and Becca Cookout. The Virginia Gray and Becca Cookout is an annual event in memory of two Gamma Pi members who we unexpectedly lost in a car accident a few years ago. The money raised in their honor at the cookout goes toward a scholarship fund that is awarded by the girls’ parents to a member of the Gamma Pi chapter. With the purchase of a $5 wristband, attendees could come into the house to enjoy a barbeque lunch and a live band on the Saturday of the Homecoming game! At our last cookout, we had over 700 people attend. Hopefully, we can continue this tradition in the future. One tradition that we were able to keep, was our annual ‘fancy’ dinner on the night of Founders Day. Our House Mom always gets cakes from her favorite local bakery and our kitchen pulls out all the stops for the special day. Usually, the dining room is full with people sitting on the ground as well as a long line to the kitchen. This year, our socially distanced line to get our food, wrapped around the house, and most people took their meals home or back to their dorms, but we still felt the love from our kitchen staff and House Mother! Everyone was so excited that we didn’t lose that tradition to COVID.
Special Events: Obviously, COVID kept us from doing a lot of events that we usually love. However, we were still able to go to our favorite event, which is the Krispy Kreme Run. This is a philanthropy event that benefits the BBBS of West Alabama, which is our local philanthropy. Our chapter advisor, Whitney Jamison, is heavily involved in BBBS, so we love helping her at the event. It is always on a Saturday morning, and we always have a huge turnout of Kappas. We were so lucky that this year’s Krispy Kreme Run was in February, the weekend before we were sent home for COVID. It was the last in-person event that we got a chance to attend and while we were sad to leave Tuscaloosa, we were glad we didn’t miss it!
Philanthropic Involvement: This year we were incredibly limited in what we could dohands-on for our philanthropy. With the majority of the kids that we work with doing school from home, we could not visit or read to them like we usually do. We usually have many ‘Reading is Key’ events, where we send our members to local elementary schools in the Tuscaloosa area to read to their classes and help them with their work. The kids absolutely love when we get to come and our members really love it too. We can’t wait to be able to start ‘Reading is Key’ events back up when it is safe to do so. We did get to have one ‘Reading is Key’ event in February before we were sent home. This event was held at Matthews Elementary. Over 90 books and pencil pouches filled with erasers, stickers, and colored pencils were given to four 3rd grade classrooms at the school. The book "Whoosh!", which is about a boy who grows up to become an inventor of a very popular toy, was read aloud to the classrooms. An activity followed where the students were to draw and share their own invention on using the materials we provided in the pencil pouches, and share them with the class afterwards. Each student went home with the book "Whoosh!" and their pencil pouches and were excited about reading when they got home. The extra books and materials we brought were donated to the classrooms. We had plans of having another ‘Reading is Key’ event in April and two in the Fall, but they were unable to happen due to COVID-19 restrictions. In February and September 2020, we held percentage days at Juice Bar and South Boutique for RIF, where a percentage of purchases by members of Gamma Pi went to our philanthropy. Due to the unfortunate circumstances over the past year, we were not able to have percentage days that were scheduled in the Spring at other local businesses, and raise money at our Parents’ Weekend. In addition, Gamma Pi is donating $1500 to RIF from our philanthropy budget. We are optimistic for the coming year and are in the works of planning COVID-friendly ways to fundraise for RIF. Despite the circumstances this past year, our chapter was able to accomplish a lot. We were able to donate to many wonderful organizations in 2020, and one that sticks out the most is the ‘Reading Allies’ program. ‘Reading Allies’ is a reading proficiency program for K thru 3rd grade elementary school students. The program was developed to help address the serious reading deficiency of Alabama elementary school students. The ‘Reading Allies’ program is based on the highly successful UA Honors College reading proficiency tutoring program. Their program, which uses Honors College developed teaching materials and Honors College students and community volunteer reading tutors, has proven it can help our state address its serious reading proficiency challenge. This fits everything that Kappa's philanthropy stands for, and we supported and became involved with the program by donating $1000. We have also shown continuous involvement with Big Brothers/Big Sisters of West AL, our local philanthropy, this past year. In February 2020, they hosted their annual Krispy Kreme Run and ALL of our members attended -Gamma Pi has the largest involvement of any group that participates! At this run, we ran with the children and others in the Tuscaloosa community and were honored to donate $5000 to them. A large number of our members continue to be "Bigs" to underprivileged children in the Tuscaloosa school system with this organization, and many of our members are waiting to be "matched" with a "Little"! The playroom at the Big Brothers/Big Sisters of West AL office in Tuscaloosa (a room for Bigs and Littles to study, read and play) is still in progress of being completed, with one of our members finishing up a mural on one wall of this room. Once the mural is complete, the tutoring program that was set up last year will kick off, with many of our members setting up "office hours" to go and help students with their studies in this room. Fingers crossed that this will be able to happen in 2021. In addition, we are sponsoring one of our member's "Little" and her siblings to get them presents for Christmas after learning that her family cannot afford it this year. $600---------$700 will be spent on their gifts. In November 2020, we learned that many students in the Tuscaloosa area do not have water bottles to bring to school and water fountains are not allowed to be in use at this time. Gamma Pi members were able to gather and drop off over 30 cases of water to TCTA school last month.