Year-long week awaiting Greeks

Blood will be lost by both greeks and non-greeks alike this year, if Pete Hammerle has anything… Blood will be lost by both greeks and non-greeks alike this year, if Pete Hammerle has anything to say about it. Greek Week Overall is a series of events that occur, despite its name, throughout the year and bring together the Interfraternity Council, Panhellenic Council and the National Panhellenic Community. ‘We’re the ‘fun side’ of greek life,’ said Pete Hammerle, one of the Greek Week leaders. Hammerle, along with Alexandra Conlon, organizes most of these greek events. They were responsible for teaming up with Pitt’s Athletic Department for last week’s Grill Night, the kickoff event of this school year. But it’s not all fun and games. One of these events will be the first of many blood drives, which will be held in both the William Pitt Union and the Petersen Events Center Oct. 6-10. Greek Week has a partnership with Central Blood Bank because the donations ‘go to people in Pittsburgh,’ said Conlon. She said, ‘Even American Red Cross goes to people elsewhere,’ as well as outside of the city. ‘One donation saves three lives,’ she said, calling for all students ‘mdash; not just greeks ‘mdash; to get involved. Greek Week has also joined up with Residence Life this year in the hopes of getting more students to participate. Hammerle emphasized, ‘Greek Week is not just about greeks.’ This year, Hammerle and Conlon are working to make an array of changes within the greek community on campus. ‘Alex and I came into this year with a few goals,’ said Hammerle, ‘chief among them to increase participation, because it has dropped off in recent years. Second, [we want] to increase accountability to the students and to us.’ ‘If people don’t get feedback, how do we know if we’re doing our jobs? And third, we want to change things and bring the focus back to the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute,’ he said. Greek Week has pledged to raise $500,000 for lung and thoracic cancer research. This is more than any other student organization has donated, said Hammerle. Every event throughout the year will have a representative from UPCI there, said Hammerle. ‘We may be playing dodgeball, but it’s for a reason,’ he said. One such event planned is the Pitt Dance Marathon. The 24-hour groove-a-thon is tentatively scheduled for Nov. 15-16. Student groups will be able to sponsor dancers, and the dancers’ fee goes straight to UPCI. Greek life’s biggest fundraising event of the year, PDM raised tens of thousands of dollars last year, as every fraternity and sorority donated $675.00 to have a dancer participate, according to its Web site. Aside from working with the cancer institute, the Greek Week leaders have several other ideas up their sleeves. Coming up on Oct. 18 is the Pitt Make a Difference Day. The day is going to be dedicated to community service and cleaning up the city. Greek Week plans to make its contribution to the citywide project in the form of 500 volunteers for the cause. Greek Week is also working with Pitt’s Student Vote Coalition by adding a little competition between the houses this fall. Hammerle and Conlon plan to distribute voter registration cards to the greek houses on campus, asking them to fill out as many as possible. The houses get points for every student registered, no matter the party affiliation. At the end of the year formal, the greek house with the most total points wins the contest. Another change already set in motion by Conlon and Hammerle is further coordination with the National Panhellenic Community. ‘We haven’t done much with them in the past and are very excited to change that,’ said Hammerle. He and Conlon are already planning monthly meetings with the Panhellenic Community, and they would like to do an event with them sometime soon. The bottom line? ‘Students should expect a different Greek Week than in the past,’ said Conlon. ‘We want to change the status quo.’