MTVU spotlights charity tourney

[TSteven]

MTVU spotlights charity tourney
By Andrea Diebold
Published: Friday, April 8, 2005
©2005 Kernel Press, Inc.

UK [The University of Kentucky] will receive national exposure as MTVU comes to Lexington on Sunday to film and promote a basketball tournament hosted by Sigma Phi Epsilon.

The fraternity is hosting a three-on-three basketball tournament that runs from Sunday to Tuesday to raise money for the Youth AIDS organization.

"The headquarters of our fraternity contacted MTVU to tell them about the tournament, and they wanted to come and help support the cause," said John Gillispie, president of the fraternity.

More than 700 campuses nationwide are tuned in to MTVU, which is featured on campus at the Student Center. Students participating in the tournament will compete for the chance to win $500 and appear on MTVU. The Final Four and championship on Tuesday will be filmed and televised nationally.

"The network is running a series on fraternities and wants to show footage of frats doing beneficial things for their community," Gillispie said. "They want to break into the whole frat scene and bust some of the stereotypes of fraternity life."

Sigma Phi Epsilon hopes to raise $10,000 for Youth AIDS, whose national spokesperson is UK alumna Ashley Judd [Kappa Kappa Gamma]. Reporters for MTVU will be on campus Monday to interview students and publicize the event.

"I think it is cool that MTVU is promoting UK and showing fraternity life for what it really is," said Tyler Hinton, a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon.

Registration

Students wishing to register can do so online at www.Youthaids.org/SigEp/uk.htm. The registration fee is $50. Those who come to support the event get in free Sunday to watch the games. The championship on Tuesday will begin at 7 p.m. in Memorial Coliseum and will be followed by a concert featuring DJ Scrilla. All proceeds from the event will go to Youth AIDS.