Lame Philanthropy Night Events
 

Have you guys been to (or had -- you don't have to say which :)) any really LAME philanthropy rounds during formal recruitment? I have heard of some really lame ones at my alma mater, and just wondered if this is a night that everyone seems to struggle with or what?! I think we have finally found one that works for us -- although I must admit its VERY hard to incorporate such a sad philanthropy (Domestic Violence) with a fun event. Especially when you are competing with other chapters who work with groups (such as children) in making fun stuff for them.

One of the worst rounds I heard about was having a card for each PNM group to sign -- that was it -- sign a card...yeah, big explanation of philanthropy!

Anyway -- without mentioning org names (unless you just want to fess up for your own ;)) tell me about some lame ones you have seen.

This was not us!

Assembling care packages for women living in a shelter. Definitely a worthwhile project, but they should have limited the items to shampoo, soap, deodorant and disposable razor. Expecting PNMs to handle tampons is just a little too much.

KRose - know what you mean!! Been there - had that happen! It ended up being a bunch of sisters throwing tampons under the tables (with tablecloths) -- it was crazy!

The problem we have had with doing these care packages now is that so many groups (churches, civic clubs, etc.) do that -- the shelter we assist has specifically asked for no more care packages or mini-toiletries because they are out of storage room!

That's funny that that happened though!

When I went through rush, one of the sororities wantes us to paint dog bowls for puppies and kittens in a pound... If that wasn't bad enough, about 10 minutes into it, the sisters started running around telling us not to paint the inside of the bowl because they hadn't bought non-toxic paint!!!!

Needless to say, I dropped them the next day!

Philanthropy night in general
 

Sometimes I think it would be better to get all the rushees & sisters together and build a Habitat for Humanity house, rather than some of the things I've heard about for philanthropic rounds.

Like AXO Alum said, there are only so many care packages you can make. A lot of our national philanthropies are mainly donation supported...and as far as local stuff, well, it's one thing for the sisters to all go to the nursing home and help out, but that's not something you can do w/ rushees in 45 minutes. And I'm sure there's some amount of resentment on the part of rushees if they get cut..."I had to make their stupid whateveritis and then they cut me!"

I think the idea of showing we do philanthropy is good, but sometimes it is hard to put it into a short party without making it really lame.

While our philanthropy events were amazing, I can remember one philanthropy themed rush party that was struggling. We decorated brown paper bags for something (I don't remember!). Ok, some of them came out cute, but I don't know......I just hate brown paper bags.

i know that Phi Mu makes "Lion Bags" to put over children's IV's in hospitals to make their rooms a little more cheery. remember, it's not what you do but the outcome that matters. Our philanthropy round has been a "progressive" one in that each party adds on to what was done previously. Every chapter i know of absolutely hates it though.

We had a national philanthropy rush event last year called things with wings... all the PNMs and sisters made anything with wings butterflies, birds, dragonflies out of construction paper, glitter, glue, tape etc... then they were sent to a store where for a dollar you could have your name put on one as a donor to the NKF and they hung all the ones with names around the store.... NE WAY... I think it turned a lot of the prospective women away from us... not only was it kinda kindergarten with the construction paper... but I think the main reason that it seemed so lame to them was becuase none of the other sororities did a philanthropy round of parties... I don't know why or if this breaks any rules but they didn't so I think the women at our parties found it kinda weird and different.

We decorated picture frames for the Make a Wish kids to put a picture of their wish in. The thing is, the local MAW office doesn't have a lot of storage space, so this idea might not work in a year or so... But people seemed to like it. The Thetas had the girls make peanutbutter and jelly sandwiches to donate to a shelter. It's a tad messy and a bit smelly, but it is useful!

One of the sororities on my campus had us make doggie biscuits for the local humane society. This was a cute idea, but it involved everyone donning an apron and cafeteria lady gloves over our rush clothes and actually working with doggie biscuit batter!! it was kinda messy and akward and after you'd touched the dough you couldn't touch anything else till you were out the door and degloved. Then your hands had that weird glove smell too. It was a good idea in theory, but the addition of rush clothes plus rush manners made it awfully difficult. The president even gave us the spiel about dues and costs while we had the doughy gloves on!!!! It's the type of project I would want to do again, when I wasn't so concious of EVERYTHING around me.:D

I was practically howling with laughter when I read this!!

When I rushed, not one, not two, but three sororities had us color brown paper bags to use as "puppets" for the local children's hospital.

The first one, I was very creative and made a darn cute puppet. The second time, I was thinking the entire time, "What kid plays with brown paper bag puppets anymore?" but still made the damn puppet. When I visited the third house IN A ROW doing the same brown paper bag puppet thing, I wanted to scream! I made some comment about "charity is good" then suggested that the sister assigned to me and I should talk instead. Needless to say, they cut me. Needless to say, I was glad!

KillarneyRose knows of whom I speak, so she'll understand completely! :D

Moral of the story: whatever you do, be sure it's not the same thing that everyone else is doing!!

Oh, now a cute idea for COB: get the thin plastic gloves that food workers use - the clear ones. Put a few red candy hearts in each finger, and fill the rest with caramel corn. Fasten the end of the glove and make a cuff (can be shredded & curled ribbon) on the hand. These make great "goblin hands" for any children's project!

Just thinking about the Domestic Violence philanthropy... Since these women are in major need of self esteem, could y'all come up with a "You Are Wonderful!" "You Deserve A Good Life!" or other type of message on a little pillow or such? I'm thinking small pin cushion-sized pillows. The design could be printed (with those fabric pens?) on felt or another heavy material, some could cut them out, others could stuff them, others could sew them up.

OR... Print out a lot of positive messages (get your psych majors working on this, or ask a domestic violence counselor), at least 31 different messages. They can be cut up, folded, and put in a mason jar or such with some sort of label "A Month of Progress" or something else that a domestic violence counselor suggests, with the suggestion to read one a day to be empowered. Maybe make the jars pretty with a fabric top & ribbon. I'm just brain storming here, I'm sure y'all can work out the details.

Ha ha ha, we did a pretty lame project this year... brown paper bags and all!

We had a red, white, and blue theme, and to go along with that, a Go USA! kind of philanthropy. We had PNMs decorate a brown paper bag, and write a short letter to troops overseas. The original plan was to have them take some little things we had (razors, toothpaste, cereal bars) and put them in their bag, but we realized we hadn't gotten enough stuff, so we just displayed the stuff nicely on the table so they could see what we were sending. Lame!

To top it off, we didn't send the stuff! My roomie was the philanthropy chair, and she had a HUGE box of all the mini samples and stuff and all the brown paper bags and letters in our room for months and months! She claimed she never had time to send it, or money in her budget (I told her to ask places if they would send it for free, since it was going to Armed Services overseas, but she was just LAZY and wouldn't do anything with the crap that was taking over our room.

Eventually, we heard about a campus-wide donations drive, and they would be sending all the stuff to troops overseas. We went through the box, threw out the bags and letters, and donated all of the stuff - this was probably in like December, Rush is in AUGUST!

The worst philanthropy day project in my opinion was the house that made PNMs decorate flower pots, only the same flower pots were used all day long so by the time my rotation got to that house at the end of the day, there was no room on the pot for me to draw anything. To me, it seemed sort of half-assed, like the chapter just came up with the idea at the last minute and didn't buy enough flower pots or something.

Sorry to hijack.
Cara, as far as I know SFSU has never done a philanthropy round at rush. When I rushed and was a collegiate (9 years ago, oh my God!) the rounds were Open House, First Round, Skit Night, Preference, Bid Day.

I think that philanthropy rounds are a good idea, but SFSU has so few girls going through rush (when compared to SEC or PAC-10) that it doesn't make financial sense to force the sororities to overhaul one entire round of parties. Just my $19.04. :)

Back to your regularly scheduled thread!

Oh no, PLEASE don't make rushees sew. Every now and then our chapter or Panhel would have us work on these "learning dolls" for homeless kids. It was a cute project (dolls in different colors with little outfits and buttons and snaps etc.) except that most of the sisters had no clue how to sew. It was funny among sisters, but I can imagine that would really turn a rushee off.

we only did one philanthropy project that I was embarrassed about. We had the girls decorate small flower pots that we filled with candy and put red and buff roses on the top. For one thing, they looked dumb. For another thing, they were *supposed* to go to a retirement home, but our rush chair never got around to it. So when it came time for open recruitment, we just emptied the original pots and had PMN's decorate the leftovers! Not to mention that the already decorated pots in IN PLAIN SIGHT on a shelf in the chapter room.

I don't think anyone noticed, but I was mortified.

Actually, I think it's really funny now, but it wasn't at the time.

Clearly, we need a new philanthropy project this year!

our philanthrophy project was making candy bags for diabetic patients
all they do is open it and put the candy in

does that sound lame?

Candy bags for diabetics? I hope it was sugar-free! :eek:

I'm still a really big fan of the care packages for domestic violence shelters. I have known too many women who had to flee from an abusive partner, only to go to a shelter where they didn't have the basic toiletries. Maybe alternating that with another event the next year as not to overload the shelter would work instead.

Like a lot of people have said, it is hard to do an altruistic project that isn't too depressing or deep in less than an hour.

We made these's flower pen's, which wouldn't have been so bad but we had to come up with a quote.. i couldn't think of an inspirational quote at that time, it was too much pressure!

What about your positive experiences on Philanthropy Day? What do other sororities do?
:)

When I went through, Chi-O did these really cute little canavas bags that we decorated with puffy paint and stencils in blues and silvers (they had this star theme, like "wish upon a star" because their philanthropy is make a wish). They were for the kids to pack toiletries in when they went on their wish. it was easy, fun and seemed pretty functional.

when I rushed I will tell the truth, I did not like our (phi mu's) night.. we colored place mats for the cmn kids... it was really boring.. However, I really loved gamma phis project they made this tent thing for us to sit under and they had the fake fire thing.. and we made s'mores.. and these flower things for the project.. they were my favorite for that round.. plus I LOVE s'mores!

At my school we don't have a philanthropy round and I'm kind of glad we don't! It seems like it would be really hard to come up with stuff for the PNMs to do that wouldn't be too cheesy or weird!

Jess

Cards and bookmarks, while not particularly original, usually work. There is always a group of people who like a cheery card (a senior citizen's home, a children's hospital), and it doesn't take mega-creativity or particular skills to make one.

But of course if every house you visited did that, you'd get sick of them pretty quickly!

Good Idea!!!! I will forward this to my chapter. We made picture frames for the kids to put pictures of their wish in, but the bag idea is good as well.
-Michelle

Acutally, other good ideas I've heard of are a chapter making stress balloons for women with breast cancer to strengthen their muscles. I guess squezing the balloons with sand and flour helps them recover faster. I also like the idea of making little stuffed animals fo rkids in hospitals, the problem is the chapter has to put a lot of prep time into sewing.
-Michelle

ZTA does the 'better bunnies', the squeezy things for breast cancer patients. We use squishy balls instead of sand-filled balloons and give each pnm puffy paint for drawing bunny faces, white balls for the tails, a washrag to fold and wrap around the balls for ears. They tie the washrags with a ribbon and a note of encouragement to the women in the ward, something like "it's not what lies before us or what lies behind us that makes us who we are. It's what lies within us." We deliver the bunnies to the cancer ward at the local hospital for the women who just had masectomies to use to build up their muscles. One of the main reasons I joined ZTA was for our philanthropy and I think the bunnies are always a big hit with pnm's.

Speaking of bunnies, "boo boo bunnies" out of washcloths are another screw-up proof one.

XOMICHELLE,

I'm glad you liked the idea. It's very cute and different from alot of other philanthropy events. They also got a girl whose wish the chapter had personally funded to speak to us about her experience and how much gratitude she felt towards Chi-O. It was pretty moving, and it really showed how truly active they were with their philanthropy. They are great girls...but I LOVE my sisters!!!!

Our chapter did boo-boo animals the year I went through, they were cute and easy. They also doubled as sock puppets which is apropriate because our philanthropy is play therapy.

hey trisigmaAtl-
I'm sure they will be happy to hear of new (maybe cheaper??) ideas for philanthropy night. I love the animal thing though!! I spent forever trying to convince the rushchairs to have us make stuffed owls. Sadly, no one can sew. ha ha ha.. What year are you? Is this next year going to be your first on the other side?
-M

yes it will be my first time on the other side and I am soooo excited!, I'll be a junior next year (I pledged as a sophomore, but wish more than ever that I could have that extra year) so i have this time and one other as an active sister during formal rush.

:) my best,
Ashley

Oh oh oh oh! (can you tell I'm excited?)
Ashley-
You will have to tell us about your story. It is exciting and I wish you all the best of luck :-) I take it you go to school in Atlanta?
-M

Michelle,

yes!!!!! I go to Oglethorpe University (I don't really care if anyone knows because the only Tri Sigma chapter in GA is at my school, so it's easy to figure out). We also have Chi-O that's been here since the 20's and AST who colonized in 2000. I am sooo excited about recruitment on the other side, I am very involved in our planning and I will have a very emotional thread in the Rush forum whn the time comes....if only August would hurry up and get here!!!!:)

Ashley

p.s.: thanks for all the kind replies, your excitment excites me more!

Michelle and Ashley hijack the thread.....
 

Ashley-
So much fun. Do you know what you are doing for themes yet? You guys will do well I'm sure!

This past spring was my last rush as an active *sigh*! The next time I see a rush room I will be an advisor. (aaakkkkk... I'm so old). I'm excited to start helping chapters as an alumnae.... now if I only knew where I was going to be living!!
-M

yes! our theme this year will be along the lines of Sigma TV with a real world night, a children's programming night, a gameshow night, and an oscars style pref.

I'm going to post all the wonderful details in my rush thread!!!
I hope that I'm still going to Rush when I'm an alum. They help out so much, and even if you're not an active anymore you still get to be a part of all the fun!!

what chapter will you be advising at? do you know any of their plans? if you're coming to GA, I am good friends with some of the Chi-O sisters here that could help you find a place to stay.

maybe we should star a rush themes thread?

ahhhhh it's only MAY

the hijacking of this thread is awfully fun:D

Ashley-
Only May! lol. We just had rush actually, in April. We've started to think abotu informal rush in the fall, but next spring seems so far away!
I don't know where I will be moving after graduation. I will probably go home to Milwaukee/ Chicago area for a while. I don't have a job yet (aaak), and I am thinking about graduate school, so I will most likely move(where? Who knows!!). As soon as I get a semi-permanent place, I will join an alum chapter and get involved in whatever collegiate chapters are in the area. I know I think the closest collegiate chapter to my house now is an hour and a half away in Madison. This is a ralyl up-in-the-air time for me!
-Michelle

Now back to your regularly scheduled thread...
 

One sorority on my campus made tissue paper flowers to give to... some place... they never got there. The chapter made the flowers into a wreath and hung it up in their chapter room! That's even worse than just being too lazy to send the project to wherever.

Philanthropy
 

Clearly, we need a new philanthropy project this year! [/B][/QUOTE]
We will definately have a better philanthropy. My favorite was selling cookie dough to raise money for juvenile diabetes. Lots of comments on that one.

When I went through recruitment there was one house that had the girls making bracelets! I hated it I couldnt tie mine and I kept spilling the little beads. Also, they were in another sororities colors that was n that campus. DUH! anyway I thought that was funny.
I remember that my house did the painting the pots thing and no body took them to wherever they were supposed to go. We ended up painting them all white (over what the PNM's did) to use for somethign later. It was hilarious!