Paddles -- does your org give them as gifts to bigs/littles, etc

[ADPiViolets]

We dont give paddles. We make plaques though. Our stone is the diamond, so we give our Diamond Sisters (aka little or big sisters) plaques in the shape of a diamond. They are really very beautiful. The sisters do a wonderful job on them. They are either decorated with paints or stickers, or with pictures of the big & little diamond sisters.

[nwsigkap]

At revealing we give our kids a paddle with the family tree on the back and the family letter sweatshirts, and kids give moms a decorated pillow. This is after three days with tons of other presents for the kids (which we're in the middle of right now...my room has turned into a small craft factory)!

[Glitter650]

In my chapter Bigs give pillows to lils, lils give paddles to their bigs. I'm pretty sure all the other chapters on campus do the same. The exchange is done after initiation. Everyone gets soo creative it's great !! We give other gifts as well though... I plan on giving my sapphire sis lots of stuff at her initiation this weekend Actually one of my sisters and I are having a "crafty competition A LA Martha Stewart/ Rosie O'donnell to see who has the more creative gifts and such for our lil's hehehe it's all in good fun though.

[AngelPhiSig]

Ooh, I forgot... In my chapter of Phi Sig, the class makes a big paddle and a brick... its fun

[AlphaSigLana]

Bigs make their littlels pillows and the littles decorate paddles for their big sisters. The exchanges are done at meeting in front of everyone. Bigs/lil do it whenever they want, usually during a year in which one is graduating. I didn't know if i was going back to my previous school so i did my exchange with my littles this summer.
I would be sad if they got rid of paddle exchange!

[purpletheta]

This is old but I wanted to add my 2 cents...
In my chapter, big sisses make their littles kites, which are given at initiation while the girls are waiting for their turn to be initiated. The kites are all unique and gorgeous and lots of families have their own special touches - mine has a fancy ribboning thing around the edges that I can't wait to learn!
The little sisses then generally make paddles for their bigs...there's no set time or anything for this, but they're generally presented on initiation as well.
Most of the other chapters on campus, fraternity and sorority alike, do paddles. When I was adopted by my ∑AM big bro, he made me a super awesome paddle and I made him a kite.
My family also has a tradition of making kites for your significant others with the relationship gets serious...kind of our form of lavaliering, I guess!

[DoveloveSigma]

We use alot of paddles. We have big/sis little exchanges, and usually once a year we have a chapter wide paddle exchange where you pull a sisters name out of a hat. We have some amazing artists in my chapter- so there are ones decorated for Wicked, Ones decorated in Grinch theme, Chicago themed... favorite movies, t.v. shows, cartoons.. everything. They hang up for just decoration of course, but they make nice topic starters. We get plenty of compliments from other greeks on them! Some of us even will some of our favorite paddles away when we graduate. When your big sis graduates, it's tradition she gets you a nice engraved paddle!

[PrettyBoy]

We used to get the paddles with the gray duck tape around them. They weren't used as a decoration though.

Boy, did they like giving it as a "gift" though.

[pshsx1]

We're always doing stuff for our Bigs. When we just have mentors, we make rocks for them. When we get a Big Brother, we make a paddle for them. It doesn't have to be a traditional paddle or anything, though. We can make it look however we want. Some people have made some pretty sweet paddles the past few exchanges. Also, when we visit another chapter, the newest members have to make a gift for that chapter. That same weekend, the Bigs pay for everything that the Littles want.

[Buttonz]

Littles make paddles for the bigs, and the bigs make pillows for the little. They are presented after initiation, along with whatever other gifts the bigs get for the littles, including the first set of letters. The pledge class also makes a big paddle for the president and NME, and if there is an assistant NME they got a teddy bear plaque.

I also set up a sister paddle exchange one year during winter break (names were pulled before break and due the first meeting in the spring). I love making paddles. I have all of mine (1 big, 2 NME, 1 sister exchange) hanging on my wall still.