[GammaDelt]

Hey bianca!

We have paddles in my sorority, and I do want to warn you that many people who are not in the sorority question them and often joke about us paddling our pledges in hazing rituals, etc.

We use our paddles as a symbol of a newly initiated sister. The girls paint their own paddles near initation. When we ask them to paint their own paddles, it's like our way of informally welcoming them into the sorority. Since we all display our paddles on our walls as decoration, the paddles are something we all have as a sign of our sisterhood.

In terms of how we paint them, we paint our three greek letter vertically on the handle. Then we paint two diagonal stripes on the top and bottom of the paddle, with the crest in the middle.

Hope that helped!