Changes

In addition to this programming, Eta Sigma fundraised fund raised $21,000 for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Orange County chapter. This donation will help provide free support groups and educational resources for individuals in our community who struggle with mental health, as well as their families. This is a record amount of money fundraised fund raised for Eta Sigma chapter! Overall, Fleurish was a representation of the values of the women in our chapter. We gave our community a platform to open up, be vulnerable, and support each other, and the results of this have surpassed the week of Fleurish. As a result of this event, our community has barriers and stigmas broken down so people feel more comfortable asking for help when they need it, even if it just means talking to their friend about something difficult.

We chose to have Fleurish this year focus on the issue of mental wellness, something we see affect our own sisters, the Chapman community, and beyond, and felt it imperative to foster positive conversations for how we can acquire tools to increase our mental health. We selected the local chapter of NAMI to fundraise fund raise for because they provide mental wellness resources to the nearby community.

'''==Highlights of 2020s:''' Information from chapter history reports, scholarship, group honors/awards, traditions, special events, changes on campus or within chapter, overall nature of the chapter, chapter goals, challenges and how they were overcome, etc.2020==

Although we faced unprecedented times, Eta Sigma had a great and memorable year. We began our eventful year at recruitment! Throughout recruitment, we were able to create a stronger bond and bring high energy to each day. On day one, the theme was ‘Go Greek’, where we are able to show off how we participate in Greek life and how exactly Greek life has positively impacted our lives. On day two, the theme was philanthropy, which is when we are able to discuss what specific organizations and causes we support, more specifically Fluerish! On day three, the theme was values, which is when we are able to discuss what exactly Kappa’s value are and how each of our members embodies them. The last day, day four, is preference day, which is when the PNM’s receive an invitation to come back to Kappa and get to know us on a deeper level. Most members will tell you that preference day is the most special because we have very heartwarming speeches, we have some of our Kappa sisters sing, and we of course share a small piece of ritual and the value of the key with the potential new member. We successfully welcomed 67 new members, and welcomed them with a pink cowgirl themed bid day hosted at Kappa alumna, Mary Silzel’s house! Soon after, we celebrated our Inspiration Week, in anticipation for Fireside and Initiation on March 15th. Unfortunately, the week before initiation, we were sent home due to COVID-19, and unable to hold initiation in-------person. We rescheduled Initiation to be on May 3rd. Our virtual initiation was very special and memorable for our Chapter, especially for our Theta Class. Although we could not all be together, we were able to have members of the Ritual and History committee to help facilitate the ceremony and make it special for our newly initiated members. To kick off spring semester, we began to hold virtual meetings, where we created themes for each meeting in order to keep everyone involved and excited! One of our biggest accomplishments was welcoming our newest committee, known as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and creating a new chapter council position for the chairwoman of the committee. During the spring, we were unable to put together our annual philanthropic event, Fluerish. We instead started a brand new virtual mentor ship with the Big Brothers and Sisters of Orange County, and have fund raised for many different causes and organizations. We were also able to be apart of a virtual version of Skit, an event put on by Greek Life where chapters have to create a six minute performance based off of a movie or TV show. Eta Sigma placed as first with an Annie theme! Our members worked very hard and had a great time putting on a socially distanced skit. We also celebrated Kappa’s 150th anniversary with a virtual Founder’s Day celebration. We welcomed all of our family members, and celebrated the founding of Kappa Kappa Gamma through many heartwarming speeches, videos, and even honored our founding members through a special ritual. As the semester went on, we held virtual meetings every Sunday, and held a sisterhood nearly every week. Some of our most memorable..

'''Note We virtually held trivia night’s, a pumpkin carving celebration, study room’s, and so much more. Our president, Charlotte Cavanaugh-Kerr was awarded president of the year, which was such an exciting accomplishment for Eta Sigma and for Charlotte! We also received honorable mentions from the annual Kappa Kappa Gamma National Convention for our new member program, a heritage award, a gracious living award, and a public relations award. We were awarded New Adelphe Level, House Award for unhoused chapters, and a financial award for unhoused chapters. Although our year looked different, we all continued to learn, grow, and flourish amongst one another and because of that our bonds as Kappa sisters grew stronger than ever. Chapter Registrar:''Philanthropy   Eta Sigma supports many different organizations and causes. We have taken the time to truly study, inform, and raise money for several different organizations. We chose to start a brand new virtual mentorship with the Big Brothers and Sisters of Orange County. We have been given the opportunity to be the first group involved in their pilot college bigs program; and we hope to continue it every year. In lieu of fundraising, we raised $250 for Orange County United Way Local pandemic relief for low income individuals and families, $658 for Seal for Lebanon Beirut Emergency to fund Lebanon, $3000 for A Place Called Home, an organization that provides an array of services to local children and their family, and $500 Black Women' s Blueprint, an organization dedicated to placing black women and girls’ lives, as well as their struggles, squarely within the context of the larger racial justice concerns of the black communities. Please refer We chose to your chapter archives including chapter meeting minutes support these different organizations and causes because Eta realizes how important it is, especially in a time like this, to give back issues of The Key and help the community, so that’s what we’ve been striving to do all year. We felt that it was an important time to fill truly study, inform, and raise money for these several organizations that are in any gaps need due to unprecedented times. We had the pleasure of appointing Roxy Amarizzi into our new DEI role in June of 2020, she was excited and prepared to implement values of diversity, equity, and inclusion to the Eta Sigma chapter of Kappa Kappa Gamma! She began to attend meetings with other Greek Life DEI chairs, Greek Life advisors, as well as meetings with our own chapter council members to brainstorm for the above historical highlightsfall. If your chapter archives are not completeShe also conducted weekly informational sessions about a culture, religion, please research your university libraryor topic that a sister felt passionate about, campus newspaper allowing for many of our new members (and yearbook archives older members!) to present on things that they felt were important to them. Then, for newsworthy information the fall semester, we created the DEI Committee consisting of liaisons between this role and other Chapter Council roles. We had weekly DEI Meetings with open forum topics about your topics like body positivity, mental health awareness, the importance of self care, and more. The DEI role also worked with our Vice President of Standards to make hate speech a standards issue as well as implementing a reporting form for the chapter. Please double check your work We also worked with other chapters like Tri Delta, Gamma Phi Beta, and Alpha Phi to raise money for accuracyLebanon over the Summer as well as conducting individual chapter fundraising for organizations like The Conscious Kid. Contact Overall, this new role was rewarding to the chapter Advisory or House Board membersbecause we were able to construct it to fit the needs of our chapter. We were able to assess the values of diversity, local Alumnae Association membersequity, or your Province Director and inclusion and found that Eta Sigma truly does promote this values and envision a sisterhood with these principles.  Eta Sigma was able to celebrate Kappa’s 150th anniversary in many ways! We were lucky enough to have the Minnie Stewart van visit us during our bid day in January! The Minnie Stewart Van allowed our chapter to enjoy exhibits and experienced Kappa’s founding firsthand through virtual reality. Our chapter loved every second of Chapters for assistanceit, and found it to be such a special way to celebrate Kappa’s anniversary. Your efforts will ensure We also were able to put together a complete virtual founders day and celebrated with our entire Chapter and accurate their family members. We had multiple of our members speak about the history of your chapter for future generations Kappa, and we were able to enjoy!put together a virtual founders day ceremony.