The fraternity sponsored its third annual Greek Open Benefiting Special Olympics golf tournament Sunday afternoon at the IU golf course.
“The summer before my sophomore year, I was playing golf at home and came up with the idea, and I thought it had a lot of potential,” said Will Howson, a senior in Phi Sigma Kappa and the founder of the event.
All of the money raised from the event is donated to the Special Olympics, Phi Sigma Kappa’s national philanthropy association.
This year, the fraternity hopes to sponsor between five and 10 athletes at the 2016 Indiana Special Olympic Summer Games, Howson said.
The tournament was organized as a four-man scramble with a trophy offered to the winning team. Twelve teams from different fraternities participated Sunday.
“I think, for a lot of people, it’s a fun way to be competitive while helping a cause,” said Adam Eldibany, a senior in Phi Sigma Kappa.
Because the tournament coincided with Father’s Weekend events for many fraternities, many of the teams were made of fathers and sons.
“When we were signing up, we realized our dads would be here, and we thought that could be fun, so we just signed up together,” said Anthony King, a junior from Delta Chi fraternity who played on a team with his father.
The event has raised upward of $5,000 in past years with the help of corporate sponsors such as Golf Channel, Johnnie-O, Potbelly Sandwich Shop and others.
These companies also provided raffle prizes for the event.
“The event has definitely grown a lot,” Stephen Ochs, a senior in Phi Sigma Kappa, said. “I think it helps that this is a pretty unique philanthropy. There’s nothing else like it, really.”
Phi Sigma Kappa’s main goal is to continue to grow the event and participation by other fraternities in order to help more athletes through Special Olympics, Howson said.
“I’d definitely rather be doing this than anything else today,” said Nick Shelar, a member of Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity playing in the tournament. “It’s a good place to spend your money. It goes to a good cause.”
A lot of Phi Sigma Kappa members golfed, so it made sense to align their hobby with their philanthropy event, Eldibany said.
“We used to do a 5K race for substance abuse awareness, but with this event we could do something we enjoyed more and have it be a part of our national philanthropy,” Howson said.
The money is used to sponsor individual athletes who compete through Special Olympics.
In the past, money raised by the event sponsored five athletes at the 2014 Indiana Special Olympic Summer Games and one athlete at the 2015 Special Olympic World Games in Los Angeles.
“If you think about these athletes, a lot of them have probably had a rough time with life,” Howson said. “We like to think that this way we can help them fulfill some of their goals and dreams.”
