Greeks help with Haiti donations

When the Center for Latin American and Carribean Studies began collecting donations to aid Haiti following last month’s earthquake, sorority Alpha Xi Delta was quick to offer support.

Returning from an informational meeting about Cram the Container, a donation drive in which CLACS pledged to fill a cargo hold full of supplies such as personal hygiene items and food, members agreed to designate the sorority as a drop-off site. 

“We decided to be a drop-off location to be a part of the bigger picture,” sophomore Meredith Stasa, philanthropy chair, said. “A lot of the time you hear about these things, but you don’t know really know how you can help. We wanted to give people an outlet. It’s convenient.”

All the sorority’s members knew about the drop-off site, and flyers advertising the philanthropy were posted throughout the house. There was a sign-in sheet posted, where donations accumulated, which kept track of who donated what. 

“Two hundred thousand people have been affected by this earthquake,” sophomore and President Jennie Grimner said. “That’s five times the size of the school. So imagine that many people gone. By donating anything you’re helping people out tremendously.”

Following the informational meeting, Alpha Xi Delta sent an e-mail informing all the chapters of its involvement with the supply drive. Both Grimner and Stasa said they were excited by the response. Girls in the house have been supportive and other chapters have invited them to speak at chapter and gavel meetings or even just stop by to dinners. 

“Right after it happened, we were just going to go around and put boxes everywhere, but then Alpha Xi Delta e-mailed us about what they were doing,” Sigma Alpha Mu Philanthropy Chair sophomore Aaron Frazen said. “We got everyone in the frat to donate something. It was really uniting.”

There were two opportunities to drop supplies off at the container on Wednesday and Saturday. The container had to be filled by Saturday night, so Grimner, Stasa and several other members of Alpha Xi Delta spent Saturday boxing up all the supplies and dropping them off at the stadium. 

“We decided one of our big goals for the year was to get more involved with service events, so this was a great way for our chapter to start off the year,” Grimner said.