This Saturday marks the start of Greek Week 2011, which is the most celebrated week as a greek life member. This is an opportunity for each chapter to showcase their artistic, athletic, philanthropic, and rhythmic talents, as well as their chapter pride. Each fraternity and sorority is paired up together to compete against the other houses; this year there are seven teams in total. The theme that was designated to tie together the weeklong events is Around the World. Teams will have to incorporate this theme into the various events during the week to receive points. On Saturday the 9th one team will be crowned Greek Week 2011 Champions, which entails a large trophy and bragging rights for a full year. Yeahh Buddy.
So what are these events that I am talking about? Well, let me tell you.
Service Events
This year there will be two service events taking place, Spring Into the Streets and a can food sculpture event. Spring Into the Streets is a program that gives students an opportunity to give back to the Kalamazoo community. Teams will be matched with different agencies and organizations varying from cleaning and fixing up neighborhoods to playing with children. Points will be given based on chapter participation. The second community service project is a can food sculpture. Teams will use the “Around the World” theme to create a canned masterpiece.
Hell Like Yell
This event basically sounds like what it suggests; you yell like hell. Teams will choose 30 members to chant as loud as they can to lyrics of popular songs that are replaced with words pertaining to the theme, WMU, and the other chapter’s names. The judges will be grading based on loudness, creativity, synchronization, and the specified requirements.
Banner
Teams will choose their most artistic souls to create a banner. The requirements are the same as Yell Like Hell: theme, greek unity, WMU spirit and creativity. Paint, glitter and all that fun stuff are highly encouraged. These banners are presented outside of Miller Auditorium in front of the entire greek community and the judges.
Greek God and Goddess
Each chapter chooses a member of their chapter that has shown exemplary qualities in the areas of chapter, campus and community involvement during their college years. As well as shining boldly in those areas, the greek god and goddess raise money for a philanthropy of their choice and partake in the Greek Olympics. Events include a pie-eating contest and a three-legged race among others. They also have to present themselves on opening night in front of the greek community in homemade togas (Think Animal House style).
Greek games
The Greek games are different from the Greek Olympics; they involve participation from anyone in the chapters, whereas the greek god and goddess only compete in the Olympics. These games include a centipede crawl, tug-o-war, obstacle course, and a chariot race. They are held at the Goldsworth Valley Ponds on the Friday before the main event, Airband.
Airband
Airband: the most highly anticipated event of Greek Week. Teams spend weeks and weeks learning choreographed dances while lip-syncing to songs pertaining to the Around the World theme. Each team has five minutes on stage to show the rest of the greeks what they got; it gets really competitive. Airband takes place in Miller Auditorium. It is hard to find words that can describe the auditorium that day. The anticipation and spirit create an aurora of ecstasy that makes everyone remember why they choose to go greek. After all the teams finish their routines, the judges tally all the scores and announce all the winners from the week in its entirety.
So as the title of this article states, let the greek games begin!