Hey, there is a duplicate thread on this. I'm going to merge the two of them and then I'll come back and make some suggestions...
ETA:
I just said this above, but I find angels kind of cheesy (thousands of Pi Phis disagree with me though!). I prefer arrow gifts by far, but arrows are a lot harder to find than angels.
My favorite gift ideas:
-Wine carnations (she's probably likely to get these though)
-Pi Phi insulated coffee mug (depending on NM, obviously, but I used this CONSTANTLY in college)
-Padded fabric Pi Phi message/photo board (I had one and used it constantly in college - I think it was from the Charlottesville Greek store HOOS Greek; I won it for winning the semester in Pi Phi points once.)
-Tasteful Pi Phi jewelry
I think your idea of something hand made or crafted is great because it obviously wouldn't duplicate something the chapter would get her. I'm not super-crafty though, so I don't know about what would be good. The things listed above are the things I would most like to receive - frankly, getting chapter gifts is great but I got a lot of stuff that wasn't particularly useful to me after college, you know? At some point no matter how much you love your org you're not going to put Pi Phi knick knacks on every surface in your home.
The Pi Phi website is currently offering two recruitment gift packages, which sound great, but at a school like LSU it might be the case that she's going to get those anyway if alums are sending her stuff. For a smaller school I think those would be cool. Those are at the main store page here:
http://www.pibetaphi.org/fusebox/htd...ion=store.home
Here are some jewelry ideas from the website I like (please note I'm just throwing out things I'd like and think she'd use after college - I have no idea of your ideal price range, though I tried to stick to stuff under $100):
A cool necklace she probably wouldn't get from the chapter since chapters usually do lavalieres, for a good price:
(
http://www.pibetaphi.org/fusebox/htd...000-1170180580)
Tasteful bracelet:
(
http://www.pibetaphi.org/fusebox/htd...000-1192640092)
Pricey but GORGEOUS bracelet - my mom got me this in college and I still wear it constantly (it comes in gold if you want to pay big bucks):
(
http://www.pibetaphi.org/fusebox/htd...000-1081974497)
I love this and would so buy it for myself if I had the money to spare:
(
http://www.pibetaphi.org/fusebox/htd...000-1081976374)
Modern but cool "Swoosh" logo arrow:
(
http://www.pibetaphi.org/fusebox/htd...000-1141338471)
Very basic and tasteful (and affordable) crest charm that she would be unlikely to get since chapters usually give letter pendants:
(
http://www.pibetaphi.org/fusebox/htd...000-1081976034)
Personally, another thing I would like to receive is the new Pi Phi cookbook,
Ring Ching, Dinner is Served. I'm not quite as sure that would appeal to a college freshman, though, especially if she was living in the dorms and not cooking for herself.
One more idea might be a Pi Phi totebag from the website or a local Greek store. There are some really cute designs on the website. She'll get a lot of use out of that.
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