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→Highlights of 2015
After a lovely Thanksgiving break, we returned to Loyola and had another wonderful sisterhood event, attending Lincoln Park’s Zoo “Zoo Lights”, before approaching Finals Week. Eta Lambda has had a very positive year, striving to continue to keep impacting both our Loyola as well as our Chicago community. We look forward to taking on the new year with the addition of a new pledge class, and continue to keep growing and learning as a Chapter, while always showing our love and loyalty for Kappa Kappa Gamma.
==Highlights of 2016==
This past year has been full of excitement and accomplishment for the Eta Lambda Chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma. Our chapter has had a huge presence on the campus of Loyola University of Chicago this year. Loyola University of Chicago is located on Lake Michigan in Rogers Park. The Loyola community has approximately 16,000 students. We currently have 141 active members. Our 141 members present a positive image throughout this exciting and diverse campus. Our chapter strives to impact the Loyola community, as well as communities outside of our own.
As we returned from our holiday break in January, we anxiously and excitedly prepared for our Spring Recruitment. At the end of January, we welcomed 65 wonderful women into our chapter. This pledge class became known as “T’s Fleur De Lis.” The members of the new pledge class had their pinning ceremony in February. This pledge class is full of smart, talented, and beautiful women, who have and will continue to make a huge impact on our chapter.
We kicked off March with our Big Little Reveal. Shortly after, we had our Initiation Week leading up to the beautiful Initiation Ceremony for our “T’s Fleur De Lis” pledge class of 2016. We ended the month of March with our Reading is Fundamental Philanthropy event. Our chapter traveled to Bateman Elementary School to read and craft bookmarks with the children.
April began with Loyola’s Relay for Life. We participated by creating a team and donating to Relay for Life. We also participated in SAE’s Paddy Murphy Week, which is a week-long philanthropy event that raises money for the St. Baldrick’s Foundation. Through practice and determination, we won the powder puff football game for the third year in a row, and we enjoyed participating in all of SAE’s other events that week, as well. Following SAE’s Paddy Murphy Week, we had a mixer with TKE at our local Bar 63 and Grill. The theme of the mixer was to dress up as your favorite Netflix character. We ended the month of April with a Kappa Cares event organized by our newest pledge class, “T’s Fleur De Lis.” Kappa Cares is something that is very unique and important to our chapter. Each pledge class hosts an event, where they raise money and awareness for a philanthropy of their choice. For the month of April, “T’s Fleur De Lis” chose to raise money and awareness for GirlForward by selling hair ties and bagels in our student center. GirlForward is a charity in Rogers Park that helps refugee girls by providing them with mentorship programs, as well as educational help and programs. We were very proud of our newest pledge class for hosting such a great event.
Over the summer, three of our Executive Board members traveled to the National Kappa Convention in San Diego, California. Our chapter won “Best National Academic Excellence,” and we also received honorable mention for Recruitment, New Member, and Standards. Our chapter is very proud of these accomplishments. After a relaxing and enjoyable summer, we returned at the end of August for the 2015-2016 academic year.
September was a relaxing month. We always make sure to support other Greek Life organizations on campus. In September, we supported and participated in Phi Sigma Sigma’s Field Day and Delta Sigma Phi’s Tugs event. Throughout September, we also prepared for our sisterhood retreat, as well as our semi-formal. Starting in October, our event chairman planned a very fun semi-formal at The Library Gilt Bar. We danced the night away with our sisters and friends. Following semi-formal, we had a sisterhood retreat at Camp Henry Horner. We all participated in small group activities, as well as activities involving the whole chapter together. The retreat was a perfect time for reflection and bonding with the whole chapter, and it made our sisterhood even stronger. We ended the month of October by participating in and raising money for Sigma Chi’s annual Derby Days Philanthropy event. As we participated and supported the Greek Life community and their events to kick off the semester, we were anticipating our own fun-filled philanthropy month of November.
November was a very exciting month for our chapter, as we hosted our first annual “Kappapalooza” philanthropy event, and we also participated in Girls Academy. A group of girls from our chapter went to Carl Sandburg Middle School and worked with seventh and eighth grade girls. We taught them about leadership, body image, and ways to deal with bullying. It was a great time for these middle school girls to have fun and open up to the understanding and inspiring women in our chapter. Following Girls Academy, we hosted our very own philanthropy event on Loyola’s campus. We were thrilled to host and introduce our brand new philanthropy event, Kappapalooza. Our week-long event involved all of Loyola Greek Life, and we raised money for Chicago-based charities. We kicked off the week by tabling in Damen and passing out candy and wristbands promoting Kappapalooza. We tabled every afternoon of the week. On Tuesday of the week, we hosted the first Big Man On Campus (BMOC) event to raise money for the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Chicago. Any man from any organization on campus was allowed to participate, and they were coached and escorted by a sorority on campus. There were three rounds for the men to represent themselves and their organizations, including fashion, questions, and talent. It was a very exciting, fun, and enjoyable event that was a great success. Thursday was our next big event for the week, and we called it Kappasta. We sold “all you could eat” Maggiano’s pasta and bread. During this event we raised money for The Greater Chicago Food Depository. We ended the fun-filled Kappapalooza week with our Kappa Kicks event. We hosted a soccer tournament for the different organizations on campus, and we raised money for American Scores Chicago. Overall, we had a very successful philanthropy week, and we raised close to $8,000 for these three Chicago-based charities. We are thrilled and very excited to host another Kappapalooza next year.
We ended the year with a Kappa Cares event at the beginning of December. We partnered with the Crohns and Colitis Foundation to raise money and provide information about the disease. We chose the Crohns and Colitis Foundation because it has affected a few women in our chapter, so we felt strongly toward raising awareness for this foundation. We tabled in our student center and sold Molly’s Cupcakes for the cause, and we raised $163. This year was an exciting year for Eta Lambda, and we are anxiously anticipating adding more wonderful women to this organization. Kappa Kappa Gamma Eta Lambda is looking forward for what next year has in store for us, as we will continue to strive to impact each other, as well as the community around us.
==Highlights of 2020s:==
