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The chapter support The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, because one of our sisters suffered from cancer and wasn't able to be at Binghamton for the 2018-2019 school year. This was our way of letting her know that we support her and were thinking of her all last year. We were so happy to have her back this semester and were grateful to be able to show our support this way.
== Highlights of 2020 ==
Our chapter started off strong this year. Many sisters came back to campus early in order to shoot footage for our recruitment video. As a part of this, our recruitment chair organized a collaboration with Canon, the camera company, where we had fun playing with polaroid cameras and took pictures that ended up in our recruitment room.
Recruitment in the spring gave us 52 members of our Beta class. At first, we had in person new member meetings and had a “paint-n-sip” new member retreat. Our VPS had a bunch of fun sisterhood events planned for the semester, from fitness events to crafting. One that did take place was Cocoa and Crafting!
However, we would be forced to go online on March 11th, and most members returned home. Although most organizations on the Binghamton campus were forced to initiate in person during the three-day period following the announcement, we were thankfully able to perform an online initiation. Doing so allowed us to protect the health and wellbeing of our members, which this pandemic has proven to be more precious than ever. Instead, we held a virtual initiation with the Ritual and History Director on May 3rd. We were so happy to finally welcome the Beta class into the chapter after months of uncertainty.
At Convention this year, we had honorable mentions for finance and academic excellence and also won the panhellenic award.
When we came back in the Fall, we decided to hold almost all our meetings and events over zoom. This means that we have held all of our chapter meetings over zoom. As a chapter, we have one meeting every Sunday, with about 2 formal chapter meetings a month. One of the only events we held in person was one of our recruitment events, where we tie-dyed masks with potential new members. The event was a success and all COVID guidelines were followed.
Other recruitment activities were held online, like a pajama party, meet the E-board and a game night. From this, we were able to welcome 10 amazing Gammas into our class. All new member education meetings would take place over zoom. We would initiate these women into our chapter on October 24th. We were so happy to welcome them into the chapter over zoom, and with the entire chapter in attendance.
Although we were largely over zoom, we were able to hold several successful sisterhood events. We had a Virtual Jackbox Games event where lineages were able to compete for gift cards to local restaurants. Another event was doing Halloween Crafts and even having a costume contest with fun prizes. Although we went online in March, we did see our sisters hard work in school pay off. Our chapter GPA improved by .17 from Fall 2019 to Spring 2020! In November, we held elections and swore our 2021 Chapter Council in on Nov 15th.
Philanthropy
We support the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, because one of our founding members was diagnosed with cancer in 2018 and is thankfully in remission. Choosing this organization was one of the ways we let her know that she was always in our thoughts and she had our continuous support.
Organizing philanthropy events was difficult this year due to the lack of in person events, but our philanthropy chairman organized a successful Chipotle fundraiser in October that to safely raised $288.52. In order to support the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation, we had a Blaze Pizza Fundraiser. We also held a Charleston Wrap fundraiser to support Reading is Fundamental. Thanks to the hard work of our philanthropy chairman, we were able to support all three of the organizations we fundraise for.
Diversity and inclusion
Our chapter was able to incorporate several initiatives to support diversity, equity and inclusion in the chapter. The most notable and important step was nominating a DEI Chairman to the chapter council. She actively provides the chapter with resources to be antiracist, provides educational programming to the entire chapter and serves to make the chapter more welcoming to sisters of all ethnicities, races, religions and sexual orientations. She also serves on the standards committee in order to deal with these sensitive topics in a confidential manner. However, this was not the only DEI initiative we took this year.
Over the summer as we watched Black Lives Matter protests across the nation, we decided to hold Netflix parties where we would watch important documentaries, like 13th, to help make sisters more understanding and knowledgeable about systemic racism in America. These would be followed by productive zoom discussions. One other step that is not explicitly a DEI initiative, was our VPAE started a chapter book club this semester. The first book they are reading is “How to Be Anti-Racist” by Ibram X. Kendi. One thing this chapter has taken to heart is that it is not enough to simply not be racist, instead we are all learning and taking the steps necessary to be anti-racist. In doing so we become better allies to our sisters.
Sesquicentennial
For our 150th Anniversary, we held events over zoom. As a chapter we held speeches over zoom. At least someone from every initiated pledge class spoke about what Kappa means to them. The speeches were so thoughtful and well-spoken. We also had a little trivia battle over zoom and Kahoot, testing member’s Kappa Knowledge. We also had a “This or That” social media post, which members could post to let everyone know their favorite parts of Kappa. Under normal circumstances, we would have been able to have more of a celebration, complete with a banner and snacks.
