Good Media potrayal of Greek
Title: TTU senior Jim Lindsay finds reward in work for others
Qualities not always associated with Greek fraternities.
But for Lindsay, they were appropriate and the essence of fraternity life.
Now, four years later, he is about to earn the highest award his national
organization can bestow because of his dedicated charitable work with the
Cookeville Housing Authority youth programs.
All through college, as part of his fraternity's commitment to service in
the community, Lindsay has tutored kids who are part of the CHA's teen and
pre-teen programs.
"Brotherly love is not just for fraternity brothers," he said. "It has to
apply to the community and to the world. I wasn't sure about this community
service when I began, but by my sophomore and junior years I found I'd
become interested in doing community service because it takes your mind off
yourself by doing something for someone else.
"And I love working with kids," he said. "I intend to support CHA as long as
I'm here and then see what I can do to keep it part of my life afterwards."
Since Lindsay is going on for an MBA at TTU and then for his PhD in physics,
he may be tutoring kids for a long time.
Lindsay likes the fact that Sigma Phi Epsilon also encourages its members to
fill their lives with challenges.
"You're not supposed to reach your goals quickly," Lindsay said. "It should
take time. You need to work at something to appreciate it and to get it
right."
'Sig Eps' are given the opportunity to meet several official challenges
during their college years, culminating with the challenge of becoming a
"Sigma Phi Epsilon Fellow."
"I always had a fancy for this award," Lindsay said. "I thought it would be
neat, but the requirements are so stiff I didn't think I could do it."
To become a Fellow, a fraternity member has to complete a 500-hour or 60-day
service project focusing on benefiting society; spend at least 100 hours
himself on the project; maintain a 3-point grade average or better, and
complete all the paper work involved in such a project.
And do it all while taking classes.
By the time he was a senior, Lindsay knew he would never have the luxury of
devoting 60 days to a project.
Entering his final semester at TTU, he was taking a full load of classes and
completing around 30 to 40 hours of homework a week.
And then in early February, he realized he had 14 days in a row coming up
with nothing on his calendar. 'Spring break.'
Lindsay called on Georgie Denehie, resident services coordinator at CHA, to
see if she had any ideas for a 500-hour project he could tackle.
"The TNT (Teens Need Training) and TWNT (Teeny Weenies Need Training)
programs are tutoring programs for at-risk children and teenagers in
government housing in Cookeville and surrounding areas, and our chapter has
been active with them for four years now," Lindsay said.
"Georgie informed me that their after-school programs all needed some
graphic design work done in various sites ... She said this work would help
the children in the programs realize that people do care about them..."
So Denehie suggested that Lindsay help paint some logos at the police
stations and Housing Authority substations that would illustrate the
teamwork between the CHA and the Cookeville Police.
When Cookeville Police Chief Bob Terry heard about the project, he asked if
Lindsay could fit in another logo for the police department.
By the time Lindsay was ready to start, his challenge was to paint 13 logos
(with diameters ranging from 30-inches in to over 6-feet) in 10 days. In
addition, he organized a fundraiser for TNT with Fazoli's restaurant and
capped off the whole enterprise with a fundraising dance for TNT and TWNT
the week following.
Oh yes, and he and his fraternity brothers and friends also made banners,
painted furniture and created mannequins for safety classes.
He began planning in late February and starting working on the logos on
March 9.
"We worked several 13-15-hour days," he said. Almost 20 Sig Eps helped
during the week of the logo painting. And the entire fraternity came out to
help with the fundraisers, Lindsay said.
By March 24, his fraternity brothers and friends had racked up 753
man-hours. LIndsay had worked 140 hours, not counting planning time. The
Fazoli fundraiser brought in $1,085.20 while the CHA dance raised just over
$1,500.
In addition, Lindsay won a plaque and a 'Key to the City' from the
Cookeville mayor and council and praise from all over.
And, perhaps most importantly, by the time 140 hours had passed, Lindsay's
goal of winning the Sigma Phi Epsilon award had evolved.
He went from wanting the award for himself, to wanting it for his
fraternity, to simply wanting to complete the project, to finally
appreciating the chance to do "something good for others and ourselves and
spending time with people that truly care about one another."
His description of the project always centers on the dedication of others.
"I remember one day when my roommate (senior Jordan Stokes) worked five or
six hours on painting, and then went to work a 12-hour shift at Bowling
World, only to get up to come help again the next day," he said.
And he praises Chris Hunter, a fraternity brother who "... gave up his
entire spring break to do this. He's the most active in TNT tutoring. He
never misses. He has incredible dedication."
But Lindsay's defining moment was when he handed a basket to Georgie Denehie
that contained $1,000 in rolled bills.
"We hadn't told her anything about the fundraising dinner at Fazoli's,"
Lindsay laughed. "At the dance the next week, we told her we got her a gift
and put it in an Easter basket for her.
"That's the moment I'll always remember," he said. "The look on Georgie's
face when she began to see how much money was there. We'd separated the
money into denominations, and then rolled each denomination up into a bundle
tied with a red ribbon.
"My roommate and I had been walking around all evening with that basket
attached to our arms -- there was so much money in it.
"She was really excited and started dancing around and crying."
Georgie remembers the dancing ... and the crying.
"I got all choked up," she said, "and then I became speechless and, anyone
who knows me, knows that that says it all.
"The way they care about our kids..." -- and Georgie got choked up again.
Lindsay won't hear from the awards committee until later this summer. But
winning the award would only be icing on the cake, so to speak.
In the meantime, he has a new goal.
"It's important for the older (fraternity) members to give back what we've
learned so the younger brothers can learn to get involved in community
needs."
And then he headed back to Maryville to spend the weekend teaching karate to
children in his hometown.
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