Greek Week – Sarah S
Greek Week – Sarah S
03/09/2020 1:01 AM
Spring semester is full of a lot of fun events for the Greek community on campus. From philanthropy sporting events to taco and mac and cheese dinners, there’s always a way to get involved and give back to our communities. With all of this excitement comes Greek Week which is by far my personal favorite week during the spring semester.
During Greek Week, each sorority is paired with two fraternities to form a team that will compete in friendly competitions against the other teams all while raising money for specific charities chosen by the sorority and fraternity councils. To make it all even more fun, Greek Week always has an umbrella theme and each team is given their own specific theme that fits under it. In the past, the themes have been things like movies and music festivals. My chapter specifically has had themes like the Great Gatsby and Woodstock. Based on the umbrella theme the fraternity and sorority councils create t-shirts that each chapter can buy and earn points based on how many members purchase a shirt. We also get to attend a Chipotle dinner fundraiser where we can earn points based on how many people attend and who doesn’t love Chipotle?! Some of the other events and “competitions” involve creating banners based on our theme, participating in sporting events and participating in philanthropic events. Last year one of the events involved creating as many homemade dog toys as possible for the local animal shelters. Whichever team made the most received the most amount of points. We also have a week-long penny war and all of the money put into the jars will be donated to the chosen charities. My favorite event of them all though is hands down the dance competition that we call Panfrasing. Panfrasing happens at the end of the week and each team gets to showcase a dance that they have put together based on their theme. The fraternity and sorority councils even invite a handful of Bradley faculty to be the judges for the competition. One year we had everyone’s’ favorite Bradley police officer judging and that was just the cherry on top of a great week. Also, getting to watch each teams’ dances is so enjoyable because everyone works so hard on them and puts all their energy into them. It really brings a smile to everyone’s’ faces and is such an upbeat, high energy time that it is the perfect way to end a long week of friendly competitions and raising money. At the end of Panfrasing, the Greek Week champion is announced and given a trophy that has been passed from winner to winner over the years. My chapter won Greek Week three years in a row and it’s always fun to celebrate a win with our fraternity partners.
While it is fun to claim the title of Greek Week champions, the main goal of the week is really all about greek unity. Here at Bradley, we strive to have a close-knit community between all of the chapters and Greek Week is just one way we make this happen. We may be competing against one another, but we all come together to cheer each other on and ultimately raise money and dedicate our time to bettering someone else’s’ community. I am sad that this semester brings me my last Greek Week, but I’m excited to go out with a bang and be part of another incredible week.