APO Newsletter Fall 2014
By: Rosanna Thai
Recruitment of Brothers
Alpha Phi Omega had a great rush week this year! As rush chair I had a lot of fun recruiting people from different years to rush APO. I personally enjoyed Spiderfest this year because so many people showed interest and were excited to hear that there is a service fraternity on campus. During rush we held an ice cream social, a tailgate, a game night, information sessions and a multitude of service projects. These were all great ways for the brothers to make connections with people going through rush. I am so happy that we just initiated some great people that we recruited and look forward to next year's rush process!
Lip Sync
Participating in Pi Beta Phi's Lip Sync this year was a blast. The theme of Lip Sync was the evolution of dance. Our dance embodied the evolution of the greatest dancer of all time, Napoleon Dynamite. Our dancers were Carol Guzman, Grace Dawson, Jeremy Hillner, Christina Annas, Amy Shick, Anne Coglianese, Emma Thompson, and Emmy Morse for rocking it on stage. Special thanks Greg Caple for making the mix. And thank you all for coming out to support us!
This was out first year in Lip Sync and we are hoping for many more years to come! :) Thank you for Shanya for helping to choreograph this amazing dance. Check it out on the link below - RT
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=980735428607746&set=vb.100000138955092&type=2&theater
FRIENDS Fundraiser
This past November 3rd, 4th, and 5th Alpha Phi Omega held the FRIENDS fundraiser to benefit the FRIENDS Association. Alpha Phi Omega has held this fundraiser benefiting the Friends Association for over 20 years.The Friends Association for Children is a non-profit organization serving the greater Richmond area. It provides over 3,500 low- and middle-income families with after school programs, day-care, music education, and social support services. This year we held the the Opening Ceremony on Monday where children from the organization visited us and made crafts and ate lunch in the Heilman Dining Hall. On Tuesday night we had the Talent Show where we had a variety of acts from country singers to jugglers. We ended the fundraiser with an Improv Show, a new addition this year. Along with the show was a raffle where entrants won STC shirts (the improv group on campus) or gift cards to places such as Martins and Xtra's Cafe. Overall the fundraiser was a success and we are looking forward to doing it again next year.
http://www.thecollegianur.com/article/2014/11/apo-hosts-annual-friends-fundraiser-event
Check us out on the Collegian!:) - RT
Homecoming Cart
The golf cart decorating was so much fun! I had heard about it from last year and I knew that I wanted to chair it when I became a pledge! It was a great way to foster some APO spirit and that's what we did! The committee and I just decorated how we felt would look good, and it turned out really well! Of course I earned my extra hours by making brand new letters to go on the front of the golf cart! Anyway, the whole committee just had fun with it all, and Emmy had fun being driven around for the parade!
Pledge Project
Being chair of one of the pledge projects
with APO was a great experience because it allowed me to accept a leadership position and focus a project related to something I feel especially passionate about. One of my biggest reasons for joining APO was that I wanted to get more involved in the Richmond community. During high school, I interned for my local food bank for my junior and senior year which was a great experience for me and taught me a lot about local hunger, food deserts, and its cyclical nature. It was really exciting for me to have the opportunity to chair a project with APO that allowed me to reconnect with this area of interest (hunger) to me and it was great to involve others as well!
Our APO pledges volunteered their time by accepting food donations (i.e. peanut butter, nonperishable items), at the dining hall and then sending themto Central Virginia Food Bank. -RT
Welcome to the Brotherhood Ceremony
As assistant pledge ed, seeing all the new brothers Shayna and I guided through the pledging process being initiated was quite the experience. I don't remember my own initiation, so I took theirs as an opportunity to remember and reaffirm the commitment I made to the fraternity about a year before. The formality and thoughtfulness of the ceremony is important to me because I think it is important to hold on to these formal, thoughtful traditions that make our chapter and our fraternity what it is.
Again this year, we have over 50 members joining us in our fraternity. We are just growing larger and larger, but that only benefits our society and community. Welcome again! - RT
Community Service Jokes
- What do you call an early AM volunteer? ...A DewSomething
- You don't volunteer.. You're volunTOLD.
- Community Service: isn't just for celebrity convicts.
- Noah's Ark was built by volunteers. The Titanic was built by professionals.
- No no! I said Volunteering-- NOT Orienteering! Now we're in the middle of nowhere .... and just who's gonna pay the price for getting us out of this mess?
- Volunteers: you can still be one and dislike the University of Tennessee!
- Theres two kinds of people in this world. People who do the work, and the people who get the credit for it.
- A Red Cross Volunteer and a lawyer died and went up to the heavenly gates. Saint Peter tells the volunteer to wait a little while, and lets the lawyer in first. As the gates close on the volunteer, he sees the lawyer greeted with fanfare! Music erupts, cheers are had. A choir of angels descend from above, and sing of joyous hallelujah for the lawyer. Finally, the great Lord Himself makes himself present, and gives a personal greeting and warm welcome to the lawyer. Things begin to die down, and the lawyer wanders off to enjoy his eternity in heaven.
As the last angel floats away, Saint Peter finally grants entrance to the volunteer. There is no music, no choir. The last of the crowd are leaving now. Confused, the volunteer looks to Peter for an explanation.
"Oh, we get volunteers in here all the time. This was our first lawyer."
- A volunteer offers to help out at a community farm. Little did she know that she would be mucking a filthy sheep stall. After two hours of toil, she looks down dismayed at her filthy jeans and boots, the farmer in charge casually sees her and says, "What did you expect? Sheep happens."
- Volunteering is the time without the crime. Community Service on the other hand...
Martins Tour
Martin's Tour
Martin's Tour
Playing Soccer w/ Kids
Martin;s Tour
MarketFest
Small words from your Publicity Chair
This has been one heck of a semester. It seemed to go by so fast. I hope you remember the good times you have had this semester. I have enjoyed the various projects I have had a chance to participate in. If you have any information on alumni updates, please inform me so we can have it on the next newsletter. Have a great vacation!
Rosanna