Greek Week continues with friendly contests

This past week, the University’s annual Greek Week competition brought out both members of Greek organizations as well as members of the broader Hopkins community to participate in a series of on-campus events.

During Greek Week, sororities and fraternities go head-to-head in contests sponsored by different Greek organizations. Through participation in these events, Greek organizations accumulate points. The sorority and fraternity that end up with the most points after the final contest will each win funds towards their own formals.

While Greek Week is sponsored by the Office of Greek Life, its events are open to the entire Hopkins community.

Following the Pi Phi Lip Sync event last Wednesday, Greek Week continued with a series of other popular competitions, notably the Delta Xi Phi-Lambda Penny Wars, Phi Mu Presents Hopkins’ Most Eligible Bachelor, the Kappa Kappa Gamma (Kappa) Cook-Off, the Sigma Chi (SigChi) Family Feud, Alpha Phi’s Ivy Games and the Sigma Phi Epsilon (SigEp) Red Bull Five-Spot Tournament.

The Delta Xi Phi-Lambda Penny Wars took place last Thursday on the Breezeway and consisted of members of several sororities and fraternities cheering for students to donate spare change to their individual, decorated boxes. Donating coins would give the respective organization points, while donating bills would subtract points.

The winners of Penny Wars were Beta Theta Pi (Beta) fraternity and Pi Beta Phi (Pi Phi) sorority.

“I thought the Penny Wars were a great way to raise money because people aren’t pressured to contribute a lot, but in the end, a good amount of money is raised,” junior Valerie Martini said.

On Friday, fraternities and sororities spread themselves out among the Levering Courtyard and competed in cooking up the tastiest burgers, side dishes and desserts. Pi Phi won the “best side,” Pi Kappa Alpha (Pike) won “best burger,” Kappa won the “best dessert” and Beta won the popular vote for their burgers.

Approximately 400 people were in attendance throughout the course of the event, and the cook-off raised around $1,005 for the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation.

“I was thrilled with how everything turned out. In terms of the cook-off event itself, I was mostly impressed with how our sisters worked together to pull off such an awesome event. It’s a great feeling to see everyone helping one another and going above and beyond to make things run smoothly,” junior Katie Prochownik, who helped organize the event, said.

After the Greek community showed off its culinary talent, its members had the opportunity to display their wit, athleticism and wing-eating abilities in Alpha Phi’s Ivy Games on Sunday.

11 teams signed up to compete in Alpha Phi’s Ivy Games. Of those 11, nine were affiliated with Greek life and two were not.

The Ivy Games consisted of four rounds of competitions. In the first round, participants raced through an obstacle relay course. In the second round, the competitors battled it out in a game of Twister. The third round was a spicy wing-eating competition. For the fourth round, participants tied balloons to their ankles in a game that required the competitors to pop the other teams’ balloons solely using their feet.

Since the competitions were largely based on time, there were no judges for the event, but rather referees.

“I think the Ivy Games went very well. The majority of those in attendance were Greek, but we also had a lot of non-Greeks stop by since it was in the Freshmen Quad,” senior Melissa Jordano, who is a member of Alpha Phi, wrote in an email to The News-Letter.

Alpha Phi’s Ivy Games are a new addition Greek Week. In previous years, Alpha Phi has hosted a casino night.

“We really wanted an event that was more inclusive for the Hopkins community. Not everyone knows how to play casino games, but everyone knows how to run through an obstacle course, eat spicy wings and pop balloons. The change was an effort to welcome more people into our philanthropy event,” Jordano wrote.

For a new event, Alpha Phi President Dana Quinn was pleased with how the event turned out.

“A new event is inevitably going to have some kinks to work out for the future, but for how involved the planning of the Ivy Games was, everything went quite smoothly, and everyone had a lot of fun,” Quinn wrote in an email to The News-Letter.

The winners for Alpha Phi’s Ivy Games were Alpha Phi and Sig Chi. The event raised a total of around $1,480, which will go directly to the Alpha Phi Foundation.

“The Alpha Phi Foundation is a foundation that seeks to advance women’s lives through the power of philanthropy by raising and awarding funds for programs that include leadership development and academic excellence. Additionally, the Foundation awards grants to promote research in the field of women’s heart health,” Jordano wrote in an email to The News-Letter.

In addition to the ultimate goal of fundraising, Greek Week also aims at bringing together the Greek community on campus.

“With the competitions during Greek Week, the Greek life at Hopkins feels like one community. The members of each sorority and fraternity are also able to show off their pride for their affiliation” sophomore Alexa Curto said.

“One of the things I love most about Greek Week is that it truly unites the Greek Community at Hopkins, and allows chapters to interact in a fun atmosphere. Our philanthropies are so important to our chapters, and it is such an honor to be able to raise money for our charities by simultaneously supporting other Greek life organizations,” junior Katie Prochownik wrote in an email to The News-Letter.

The total amount that Greek Week has raised is still being calculated.

Greek Week will formally conclude on Nov. 4 when sororities will compete in a powder-puff football tournament.