Let me first introduce myself.
My name is Stephen Gordon and I am the president of the Lambda Alpha Chapter at the University of New Orleans. As the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is approaching us I thought I would take some time and update the rest of my brothers on how we are doing. Before I do that let me take some time to give some background information about our chapter and what the last year has presented to us.
During the Spring 2005 semester we found ourselves in a pretty serious rut, crippled by morale problems as well as being a chapter that was seriously divided. These issues as well as other questionable actions resulted with our chapter being suspended with a very small possibility of coming back in the spring of 2006 when our suspension would have been lifted. As you might have guessed many brothers were ready to move on with their lives and even though I love my fraternity with all my heart I felt I could do no more for my chapter; I moved to Denver for the summer to recharge and be with my girlfriend at the time. I truly thought my days of being an active member of Lambda Chi Alpha were in the past and even though that was a hard pill to swallow I accepted it as the reality at the time.
At the end of the summer of 2005 I moved back to New Orleans to finish my last year of school. Unfortunately I picked the wrong time to do so as 5 days after I moved back home (I lived in Lakeview 1.5 miles from the 17th street canal breech) Hurricane Katrina struck and changed my life forever. In an instant I lost everything I owned, my neighborhood, my way of life, all of my friends were displaced across the country and I truly could not comprehend how in a blink of an eye everything that I loved was now gone. I ended up going back to my house on a boat to save some animals that were left behind and the experience was beyond words. I ended up bouncing across the US visiting many different cities and trying to find some place to experience normalcy even if for a brief moment. During this time the last thing on my mind was thinking about saving my chapter or for that matter my fraternity at all. As you could imagine I was at a very low point in my life and being surrounded by destruction and devastation did not help the matter much. After moving back to New Orleans in late November I had to come to terms with what I was going to do to finish out schooling as well as what I was going to do with the rest of my life. I got a phone call from our headquarters asking me if anyone was coming back for the spring and after talking with them it seemed that any hope of our chapter coming back was gone. I was angry but more so because any support structure that I had left was gone and at that moment I truly gave up all hope for my chapter and to be honest I also gave up on my fraternity as well. It is funny how things ended up working out because the last thing I was concerned with at the time ended up being the one thing that turned my life around.
Even though I was registered at UNO for the spring of 2006 our semester did not start till January 30th. Because of this I decided to go on a 2 week road trip to try and find myself again. I decided to go visit many of my fraternity brothers that were displaced after the storm and my travels took me from New Orleans To Salt Lake City Utah. Not only did I visit my brothers I ended up stopping at 3 chapters along the way and seeing 3 separate initiations in a 2 week span. Seeing initiation never meant so much to me as it did during that period. I remembered why I loved my fraternity so much and how I knew I had to do everything in my power to bring my chapter back not only for myself but also because I could not stand to think how many young men lives could truly benefit from what Lambda Chi Alpha had to offer especially during this trying time.
I came up with a pretty crazy plan but under the circumstances I was used to things being a tad off. Only 2 other of my fraternity brothers came back to school initially and I told them what we needed to do. Even though they both commented that it seemed impossible we decided we needed to try. Myself, Cody and Paul ended up knocking on every door in the dorms (8 floors worth) passing out fliers and getting young men interested. The 3 of us ended up rushing 4 men (Amazing guys by the way) and with getting two older brothers back involved we had the most amazing semester of our lives. I contacted our Alumni Liaison at the time and with nationals hearing of the work we were doing we ended up having Bill Farkas come down and speak with us and evaluate our situation. He decided that by the work that we were doing that a rush team in the Fall was in order. The amount of hope and comfort this brought to a small but extremely courageous bunch of young men was inmeasuable! In the meantime our fraternity house was undergoing a complete renovation and after living on blow up mattress for the entire semester I finally moved in May 13th. After meeting with Aaron parker at the end of the spring semester we had our first initiation since the storm and it was truly the most amazing experience I have ever seen. It truly brought every one together and has paved the way for our success this semester.
Over the summer the brothers worked our tails off to make sure we would continue to progress. I gave 15 minute presentations about Greek life at all of the summer orientations while our delta team mailed fliers out to all the incoming freshman. We also completely refurnished the house ourselves! The entire summer was spent working and making sure the house was in order and I can truly say it is now one of the most amazing houses I have ever had a chance to witness (I could be a tad biased
) After meeting with Aaron Parker and Mitch Woods this semester we became even more motivated and after the first week of school has ended we have about 10 new recruits already with my goal being 20 this semester. After what we have gone through this past year I am confident we will pull this off and becoming even stronger then we have ever been.
As the one year Anniversary is approaching us I truly can not believe what has happened within the past year. At times it truly feels like a dream but at the end of the day it is great to know how much my fraternity has truly helped myself as well as the rest of my brothers pick up the pieces of our lives and help build a bigger and brighter future!
I also wanted to thank everyone for the amazing experience at General Assembly. The round off Applause at the roll call made myself and my other two guys feel so good!
In ZAX
High Alpha
Stephen Gordon
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