Changes

RIF is a nationally recognized organization that is working to improve literacy in kids by providing them with access to books of their very own through community involvement and donations. Kappa Kappa Gamma has been a long time partner with RIF and our chapter wants to help raise money for this amazing organization. We held our Kappa Kickball tournament and have given our time to the Boys and Girls Club of Santa Cruz as our Reading is Key events in order to raise money for RIF. We also choose to support local breast cancer awareness organizations, homeless shelters, and Camp Kesem because the missions of these organizations are close to many of our sisters' hearts.

2018 proved to be another lovely year with another lovely bunch of Eta Mu Kappa women. To kick off the year, we had a smooth transition of chapter council, sworn in by last year’s president, Kamille. Meetings were filled with an unparalleled amount of gifs and memes in officer reports -- always a pleasure to see. On the philanthropy side of things, we’ve continued bringing in money for Kappa Kickball, a kickball fundraiser for the Santa Cruz animal shelter. This year at Spare The Hooters, we raised over $1100 for breast cancer research with help from the gentlemen of Sigma Pi, a new record for money raised at the event! Our Reading is Key events went well per usual and many books were collected for the Boys & Girls Club at Sapphires on Skates, a new and popular Kappa fundraiser taking place at the Santa Cruz Roller Rink. May was filled with events like our annual Greek Week in which most Greek organizations participate in a bit of friendly competition. Our ladies participated in basketball, game night, and of course, pizza eating. We had a beautiful Formal at Coconut Grove on Cinco de Mayo where one of our very own, Nicole S., drew the design for our shirts. Our girls got closer with events like sorority powderpuff, where many of our members practiced for months, which is what this chapter is all about: getting closer to an stronger with our Kappa sisters. The event brought in over $300 to Camp Kesem, a national nonprofit with a chapter at UC Santa Cruz dedicated to giving children whose parents have or have had cancer a free week of summer camp. In June we watched and honored our 2017-2018 class of Kappa girls graduate. Our seniors shared a special last year together with events like Senior Tea and Senior Send-off. It was our first year with an informal spring recruitment which brought our lovely Sigma class to us. Fall recruitment was stunning and organized as Kappas talked, sang, and smiled our hearts out to our new Tau class women. We’ve had some wonderful sisterhoods put on by both Standards and Ritual committees. From voting on our favorite Halloween costumes to watching “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before” we’ve laughed our heads off considerably in each other's company. The always delicious Thanksgiving dinner at Terra Fresca was a success, leaving members more stuffed than the turkeys we ate.

This year has been a year of growth, laughter and learning for our Kappa chapter. Chapter Council came together to work though any and all issues and provide support to neighboring officers. This chapter as a whole is a group of beautiful, empowering, and always compassionate young women and we are sure to see next year bring even more progress.

This was our first year in Panhellenic recruitment that our chapter participated in informal spring recruitment. Officers who were a part of the initiation and new member process preformed most of their tasks twice, a change that was smoothly carried out by the designated officers.