By Gisselle Hernandez, Features Editor
Greek students spent the weekend crouching in the dark behind hay bales and hiding behind tarp-covered walls in hopes of winning Kappa Delta’s annual Laser Tag Tournament benefiting Prevent Child Abuse America.
Kappa Delta’s main philanthropy is Prevent Child Abuse America and every year the sorority hosts “Shamrock Week” on campus where the sisters raise money for PCAA. Last fall, KD hosted their first laser tag event at the end of their Shamrock Week, which was open to both Greek organizations and the community. This year, the sorority decided to switch things up a bit to make the week more beneficial to PCAA.
Shamrock Week kicked off with Flamingo Flock – Greek organizations having to pay to remove flamingos from their yard that were placed there by KD – and the sisters tabled throughout the week to raise money. Most Greek organizations do change wars to collect money for their philanthropy, but KD decided to do “Pick a Number” instead. Each Greek Organization was given a board with numbers from one through 40. A person would pick a number and pay whatever that number was to cross the number out. When all the numbers on the board were crossed out, the total amounted to $820.
Sarah Kelley, president of KD, said this proved to be more beneficial to PCAA since more money was raised. Kelley said advertising during the summer also helped in the spike in profits this semester.
After a week of Kappa Deltas selling barbecue nachos, pinwheels and T-shirts, Greek organizations gathered with their laser tag teams at the William “Bill” Cherry Exposition Center Friday night. Each Greek organization could register more than one team. They paid $70 for the first team to participate, $50 for an additional team and $20 for any other additional teams after that.
Each game lasted seven minutes, with sororities playing on one side of the arena and fraternities at the other. At the end of the tournament, Pi Kappa Alpha and Alpha Delta Pi emerged as champions. The new daggermen for the sorority, which is the equivalent of sweethearts in fraternities, Chantry Carroll and Nathan Brown, were announced.
Natalie Hubbard, vice president of community service for KD, said this year they definitely saw a jump in profits from last year. She said the profits from Friday night and other outside donations amounted to approximately $1,200.
The laser tag event was open to the community on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Although no exact number had been calculated, Hubbard said there were a good amount of people who came to play throughout the day, up to almost closing time.
“They love the cause just as much as we do,” she said. “We try getting the word out there, to let people know what we’re here for and I think that’s helped a lot.”
Hubbard said it is not difficult to get people to be involved. She said once someone hears what the cause is about, they don’t need any more convincing.
“They come up and say ‘what are you raising for?’ Once they hear PCAA, they don’t question more; they just say ‘we’re going to support you no matter what,’” she said. “Which is great about the Greek community; they will always support you without question.”
Eighty percent of the profits KD makes during Shamrock Week goes toward PCAA Kentucky and 20 percent goes to PCAA National. According to National Children’s Alliance, an estimated 679,000 children were victims of abuse and neglect in 2013. Although KD’s main philanthropy is PCAA, Hubbard said they assist in other areas such as hosting a book drive for an alumna’s school and donating baskets to the Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) in Murray.
“We try to go above and beyond and try to help these kids as much as we can,” she said.