philanthropy day
 

I am curious about the crafts that you have done for the philanthropy day. What have you done? How well did it work? What stuck out about them when you rushed?

When I rushed it was the first year for the philanthropy project. At one house we made gift baskets for children in hospitals-that was okay.

One house had a really cute craft. We all made ornaments for a Christmass tree for a shelter (homeless or domestic abuse I can't remember). They had a tree set up and we hung them up. It was really neat because you could see what all the rushees before you had done. I was near the last party so it was covered with stuff. It looked pretty.

The last party I went to that day we choose a teddy bear and tied a bow with ribbon around its neck for a sick child. I didn't like that because you could tell that the ribbon was re-used. They were taking the bows off between parties and it was all creased by the end of the day. It made me feel like their philanthropy wasn't as important to them as it was to other chapters.

During our open recruitment we did philanthropy activities on the 1st night. One of the recruitments we had the girls decorate folders for the local boys and girls club for "Back to School". The next time was around the time of the september 11th thing I think and we had the girls make little cards to send to New York.

One sorority made cookie boquets that were just darling. They had tables set up where each PNM got to decorate a plain sugar cookie in different shapes with icing. The cookies were all on wooden dowels and were placed in baskets to make bouquets at the end of the party. They were later sent to the sorority's philanthropy.

ZTA's philanthropy is the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. For the past few years, we've made flower pots for the breast cancer patients. This year, we changed it. We decorated thermoses for the women who would be running for the Relay for Life or Race for the Cure.

We always decorate flower pots and donate them to a nursing home!

My chapter didn't have a philanthropy day when I was there, Rush was only 3 days (1200 people in the school, who needs more?) but since Rush wasn't until the middle of January, we had pre-rush events open to all women on campus in the fall.

In October, the chapter sells homemade caramel apples at the Homecoming game, and the proceeds go to the local domestic abuse shelter. A few years ago, we decided to combine the apple-making with the pre-Rush event. The actives and PNM's make the apples together in the kitchen of the Panhel wing (no houses, but we have our own wing in a dorm). It's messy but fun and tasty. Even more fun is going to the apple orchard with other sisters and picking the apples.

Favorites included the chocolate-and-peppermint covered, as well as the standard nut, caramel, chocolate, etc. I'd recommend Macintosh apples (the only kind I eat :) ).

Our ZTA chapter makes 'love bunnies', which are rubber bouncy balls wrapped in a white washcloth and tied with a ribbon. Sounds odd, but it comes out look like a really cute bunny rabbit. The breast cancer patients we deliver them to can use these love bunnies to rebuild their pectoral muscles after they've had a mastectomy. PNM's usually love this craft - it's easy and meaningful.

I'd love to hear from people who have gone through rush in the last couple of years about which philanthropy crafts they enjoyed. If those of you GC'ers who are going through spring rush could post your views on the crafts that you do in rush I'd really appreciate hearing your perspective. You don't have to say which house did what.