What the paddles looked like.
 

Well very early this morning (2:17:37 am to be exact) my pledge daughter became a member of the Zeta Chapter of our fraternity. Her paddles (i think) came out kick ass! the captain wheel is the one her pledge dad did for her, and i did the long one. the name on the paddles is her nickname "Firmeza" which means firm, strong, steadfast.
http://home.comcast.net/~ambicion6/lilipaddle.JPG


http://home.comcast.net/~ambicion6/sergiopaddle.JPG

We don't do paddles, I'm quite sure because of the negative connotations, but we do do wooden arrows. During Arrowdays, each big sis gets an unpainted wooden arrow and decorates the shaft of the arrow with their little sis' name and writes a message on the point. Then, it gets passed around to all the other members of the house at one of our Arrowdays events for the other members to sign, also. They write things like, "Welcome to the house!" and "Contratulations on earning your wings!" to welcome the new members to active life. Everyone who lives in the house hangs their arrow on the wall above their closet for some reason. :) Tradition, I guess.

Pictures:

Front -

http://img30.photobucket.com/albums/...Phi/arrow1.jpg

Back -

http://img30.photobucket.com/albums/...Phi/arrow2.jpg

For us, the new members make a paddle for their big sister, and the big sisters usually give them a hoodie or some type of clothing with letters on it. The pledge class also buys/makes their pledge mom and the chapter gifts (the present for the new member director usually fits her hobbies and personality, while the chapter present is more of a useful gift for our room).
I still have the two paddles I got from my littles, and I can't wait to move them into my new home in August! :)