Changes

From This year was a year of challenges and changes for our chapter history reportsand every Kappa chapter. However, scholarshipI truly believe that Gamma Pi came together and worked hard to make this semester the best that it possibly could be for our members. Scholarships: Due to COVID-19, group honors/awardswe were unable to host our annual Virginia Gray and Becca Scholarship Fundraiser, traditionswhich provides funds to give two of our members scholarships to help pay their chapter dues. McLean Moore, special eventsour Director of Philanthropy, changes on campus or within chapterhad plans to have a book drive at the fundraiser to support Reading is Fundamental, overall nature as well as the Virginia Gray and Becca Scholarship. We hope to be able to continue our tradition of having this fundraiser in the chaptercoming years. Despite not being able to have the fundraiser, chapter goalswe were still able to give two of our members the scholarship this year! In addition, challenges we are so proud that many of our members have scholarships from UA and how they were overcome, etcother organizations.)

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.

'''Note to Chapter RegistrarGoals:''' Please refer This year our main goal remained to your be chapter archives including involvement. I do believe that we did increase chapter meeting minutes involvement due to the fact that everything was online. It was much easier for our members to participate and back issues come to events when they were using zoom. Coming off of our Focus Letter last year, this was one of The Key our main goals, and I believe we did well encouraging participation. Chapter Operations under COVID-19: Our entire semester looked different due to fill in any gaps in COVID- 19. We started off with a completely virtual Recruitment. While we were worried about our conversations being awkward or weird through zoom, we got great feedback from the above historical highlightsPNMs. Our pledge class this year has been amazing. If your chapter archives They are not completeso understanding about the limitations of this semester, please research your university library, campus newspaper and yearbook archives for newsworthy information they never complain about your chapterthem. Bid Day was done virtually with the girls coming to the house to pick-up their Bid Day bags after the virtual Bid Day was over. Formal Pledging and Initiation were also done virtually via zoom. We had a virtual Inspiration Period with tabs at our local coffee shop and a Big-Little Reveal via zoom as well. Even though we would have wanted to have these ritual events in person with alumnae coming into Tuscaloosa to participate, many people liked being able to see all the initiates’ faces. The members all said that they really got to listen to what was being said. Please double check your work for accuracyThey were both different than usual, but successful! In general, the house was incredibly different this semester. Contact The first week of school, we had an outbreak in our chapter Advisory or House Board with many of our memberstesting positive for the virus. Thankfully, local Alumnae Association no one was in critical condition and all the membersaffected are healthy now. During this time, the only people permitted in the house were the people who lived there. Food was served out the back door, so that no one came inside, and we had a group of members at the doorstep of the people who had tested positive or your Province Director were quarantined. Our members really worked to keep everyone safe during this time, and we all came out of Chapters it healthy. We also had some Sisterhood events held over zoom! We had a trivia night that was a hit and the prizes were great. We are planning another for assistance. next semester!

Your Chapter PhilanthropyWhat organization does the chapter support? Big Brothers Big Sisters of West AlabamaWhy did the chapter choose this organization? We support BBBS of West Alabama because we want to impact children near us in the Tuscaloosa community. We give financially, but with BBBS, many of our members are also able to give their time. Members of Gamma Pi are able to be matched with a “Little” and volunteer their time to helping a child reach their full potential. We also have the flexibility and support to start more programs like tutoring services. By supporting BBBS, we are able to make an impact directly in our local community. Diversity, Equity, and InclusionHow did your chapter include diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in yourprogramming this year? (e.g., adding a DEI officer, philanthropy events, social mediaawareness campaign, chapter training, etc.). This year we were so excited to add a DEIofficer to our Chapter Council. Our new Director of DEI, Molly DiMarino is so excited to be a part of Chapter Council and work with our entire chapter in her DEI efforts . At UA, our SGA recently started an initiative in which people can be DEI Certified. In this process, individuals can participate in open table talks, literature, and forums with people of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community to make our campus a more inclusive environment for everyone. This year, everyone on Chapter Council and many of our members who were interested in the topic started this process in September and will ensure a complete be getting DEI Certified in February. We are so excited about this program and accurate history the future of what it could do for our members. Sesquicentennial CelebrationHow did your chapter celebrate Kappa's 150th anniversary? Share what you have done thisyear. This year for our 150th Anniversary, our chapter had a fancy dinner to celebrate. This steak dinner is a tradition to Gamma Pi that our kitchen is always so excited to do for future generations us, but they especially were this year, since it was our 150th. We also had a history review at chapter to enjoy!remind our members of our founding the day before Founders Day.