Greek life members compete in first Greek Games event

In accordance with the value placed on community that many Greek Life organizations share, several sororities and fraternities participated in the first event of many in a tournament called the Greek Games.

The event was held on Jan. 23 in the ballrooms of the Overman Student Center starting at 2 p.m. The game of choice was cornhole. The tournament was organized by Aubrey Owens, sophomore in strategic communications and president of Alpha Sigma Alpha, and Billy Buck, junior in construction engineering and vice president of Sigma Chi.

“This event is a sorority and fraternity event,” Owens said. “The governing body, which both of us are on (Owens and Buck), our fraternity council, and the Panhellenic Council, we put together an event for both sorority and fraternity life. This is the cornhole tournament, a part of the Greek Games that Billy and I are the executive chairs for. This is one of five or so events that happens once a month. This is our first one.”

The focus of the Greek Games is to build community among the various Greek Life organizations while also providing opportunities to engage with the local community.

“Like we said, this is our first event,” Buck said. “It’s hopefully an opportunity to get all of Greek life together to have some fun, and then we’ll do some philanthropy events along the way too so we can help the community.”

Cornhole was chosen as the first game due to its simplicity and general popularity among college students.

“We thought a fun kick-off that’s pretty easy, pretty laid back, but still fun would be a good event to start with, and everyone loves cornhole,” Owens said.

“The second week in February we are having a faculty appreciation week where we will put sticky notes on faculty office doors to show our appreciation for them,” Owens said. “March is the food drive, so each chapter will collect non-perishable food items which will be donated to the Gorilla pantry. Then after that we will have a sculpture-building contest with those food items to make it fun. In April we have the Big Event that we’ll participate in. We also have Air Band, which is a yearly tradition.”

Air Band is the final event of the Greek Games. It will feature a variety of performances by the various Greek Life chapters.

“It’s a lip-sync performance that goes along with the theme of the Greek Games overall, which we decided was a beach theme,” Buck said. “It’ll be a big performance. Every chapter will put together a routine, they’ll perform, and we’ll have judges. The winner of the overall Greek Games will be announced there.”

Students interested in joining a sorority or fraternity can check out Gorilla Engage. Several of the chapters post information about chapter values, upcoming events, and rush events on the site.

“Greek Life is a good way to bring people together,” Owens said. “I know in the beginning you may join to make friends or get more involved, but as you develop in your position and develop in your chapter, it really does show how involved you can be on campus and in the community. It’s a really great way to get to know people and help out the community around you.”