ATO celebrates holidays with local Boys and Girls Club

Suspense built over chicken fingers and French fries as about 15 children from the Lincoln Street Boys and Girls Club finished their dinners, the only things between them and a pile of Christmas presents in the Alpha Tau Omega living room.

The men of ATO had raised about $4,500 in the months leading up to their annual “Christmas with a Child” holiday party, with which they bought items to modernize the club’s Teen Room.

This year’s celebration took place Dec. 8.

The event started about five years ago, Lincoln Street Boys and Girls Club Director Chris Tann said. In the past, the fraternity members would buy presents for each of the
children.

Now that there are more than 700 members of the Lincoln Street Boys and Girls Club, ATO’s focus has shifted toward giving gifts to help “modernize” the club, Tann said.
Boys and Girls Club member Che Hogue, 9, hoped for an Xbox.

“We have one at home,” he said. “But my brother doesn’t let me play it.”

Across the dinner table, 12-year-olds Tori Sanders and Greta King were hoping for a new TV for the Teen Room, where all the kids age 12 and older hang out, King said.

Although only a handful of children attended the fraternity’s Christmas event, the Lincoln Street club serves as an after-school and summer hangout for about 150 kids between the ages of six and 18 every day.

“Our mission is to enable all children, especially those who need us the most, to grow to their full potential, to become caring, productive and responsible citizens,” Tann said.

Most of the kids who attended ATO’s celebration, Tann said, had been coming to the club every day since he took the directorship position four and a half years ago.

In 2010, following alcohol and hazing violations, the University decided to reduce the number of members in the fraternity, and ATO became an un-housed chapter.

This year is the fraternity’s first year back on campus, sophomore and ATO Philanthropy Chair Brett Bassock said.

Since then, junior and ATO President Aaron Placzek said, the fraternity has grown from 26 members to about 140, and the chapter has tried to keep up with its philanthropy work.

“We never really stopped once we lost the house,” Placzek said.

“Christmas with a Child” continued despite the fact there wasn’t a house in which to have the party, Tann said. Instead, men from ATO celebrated at the Lincoln Street Boys and Girls Club.

“Alpha Tau Omega brought all the wrapped presents ... and we had groups of kids come up and open one present at a time,” Tann said. “It was just like you would expect, the gasps of excitement when they’d open the presents and find a new Wii system or new art supply set.”

Tann said he was impressed by the fraternity’s consistent dedication to the Boys and Girls Club, especially during the time they were off campus.

“For anybody, that would be a time to work things out,” he said. “But they consistently put the club’s needs ahead of their own.”

After dinner, it was finally time for what the kids had been waiting for.

They hurried to the table, on which rested large and small packages wrapped carefully in Frosty the Snowman paper. Fraternity members passed out the presents, one for each child to open.

A girl tore the paper from a Kinect for the club’s Xbox 360. Hogue’s jaw dropped, and the kids clamored in excitement.

Fraternity members clapped after each child opened a present: video games, Microsoft Office, two new laptops and, among other gifts, a TV mount.

Toward the end of the present unveiling, a girl claimed the largest present at the table and hastily ripped the paper from the box, revealing a new 39-inch LED TV for the Teen Room. The children cheered, and fraternity members applauded, some joking about how happy they would be if they got a new TV for Christmas.

Tann said every year he is grateful for ATO’s help, not only during the holidays but also throughout the year with various Boys and Girls Club activities.

“It’s really humbling to have so many organizations on campus who reach out to us through volunteerism and giving,” he said. “ATO is certainly one of the leaders among those groups in terms of lifting the club up.”