Emma Worley
The Phi Kappa chapter of Chi Omega at UWG hosted “Wish Week” from April 8-12. The philanthropy of the chapter is the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and they actively raise money for it year-round.
Once a year Greek Life hosts “Wish Week” which consists of many competitions and contests that the fraternities compete in. Each fraternity on campus is involved in the activities that go on throughout the week and contributes money for the cause. By winning the competition of the day, they receive points and by the end of the week whoever had the most points is the winner of “Wish Week.” The winner receives a donation of $250 to their chapter.
This year, Philanthropy Chair Anna Kate Graham hosted a phenomenal week full of great activities. The first day was “Pie a Chi O,” which was held in front of the Starbucks on campus. It cost $2 to pie one of the girls and anyone on campus could do it. For the fraternities to specifically receive points for donating they put their chapter name on the Venmo transaction or paid cash and put it in their bucket.
“We do this event a few times per semester and we have found it to be a huge hit,” said Graham. “We successfully raised a great deal of money from it.”
The second day of wish week was the “Mr. Chi O Pageant.” There was a $5 entry fee for anyone who wanted to come watch the event. Each fraternity had someone representing them and they would compete on stage in each category and be judged. At the end, the winner was announced to be a member of the Kappa Alpha fraternity.
The following day was a Volleyball tournament hosted in Greek Village. It cost $5 to play and they played bracket style for the winner. On day 3, the Kappa Alpha fraternity won again.
Kappa Alpha was on a roll and they won the day 4 competition, which was a hot dog eating contest. Although Kappa Alpha was winning the competitions, other fraternities were still donating money and receiving points. Before day 5 began, the top 3 leaders were Phi Delta, Chi Phi and Kappa Alpha.
“As the week went along we were having ‘Venmo wars’ all day every day. They could Venmo our Chi Omega Make-A-Wish account any amount with their chapter name as the title of the payment and they would receive points for that as well,” said Graham.
The last and final day was a basketball tournament. Again this event was $5 to play. They competed in bracket-style for this as well. After a long hard fault battle, Kappa Sigma was the winner. After the game concluded, that was the end of wish week and the Venmo wars were over too. Graham and a few of her sisters within Chi Omega headed to their chapter’s house to total up all points so they could announce the winner.
For the conclusion of Wish Week, Pi Kappa Alpha (PIKE) chapter was the winner and they received a $250 donation to their chapter as their prize.
Chi Omega hopes to raise $10,000 per semester to grant a wish. If they do not reach the goal within the semester, the amount raised starts over the next semester.
“During Wish Week we were able to raise a couple thousand dollars on top of what we already raised from other events throughout this semester,” said Graham. “We are currently sitting at a total of $9,553.09. I’m so proud and thankful for everyone who has helped us get here. I know we can do it and reach $10,000.”
Throughout the school year they raise money for a great cause and put together wonderful events. They will continue to raise more money in the few weeks left of the semester to reach their grand total and grant a wish.