On October 15, Sigma Phi Epsilon will be collaborating with Fraternity and Sorority Life to host the Paint Campus Pink fair as a part of their Breast Cancer Awareness initiative. All of the funds are going toward the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Coming with their own personal contribution are Alpha Sigma Phi, Chi Phi, Chi Psi, Sigma Nu, Delta Phi Epsilon, Phi Sigma Sigma, Theta Phi Alpha, Sigma Delta Tau, and Lambda Tau Omega Sorority, Incorporated.
It will run from 2 to 5 p.m. on Schaefer Lawn, where anyone is welcome to just walk up and pay an entry fee to get access to all of the events’ activities. Inside the fair will be activities such as face painting, hair tinsels, water ballooning brothers, and a jeopardy board with prizes for correct answers. If someone doesn’t have time to fully enter the fair, there will be baked goods and a raffle outside so they can still donate and get something out of it.
The planning for events for Breast Cancer Awareness month had started in the summer, with over 20 hours spent on Paint Campus Pink, and Samuel Ferro, Sigma Phi Epsilon’s (SigEp’s) Vice President of Programming, as the head of it. According to Ferro, they haven’t ran into any specific problems while planning, but they anticipate that there might be difficulties with “spreading word about the event through social media advertising, as well as budgeting in a way that each organization doesn’t run out of their event essentials throughout the three hours of the event, while maximizing as much profit as possible.” While SigEp is putting in a lot of effort, Ferro says, “Paint-Campus-Pink isn’t a Sigma Phi Epsilon event by any means. We have nine organizations collaborating with us, and without their help and individuality, a philanthropy event of this caliber would be nowhere near possible, let alone successful.”
This event is super important, one to raise money and awareness for breast cancer, but also for campus and Greek life. Ferro hopes an event like this can help showcase how fraternities and sororities interact and could help strengthen our campus culture. He hopes to bring a new sort of traction to Greek life philanthropy events, and set a positive precedent for the future of Paint Campus Pink. Aidan Ruck, Sigma Phi Epsilon’s President says, “We think that the Greek community at Stevens has a lot to offer, to both the campus and surrounding community. We’ve been working to strengthen collaboration between Greek organizations because we believe that together we can achieve something truly remarkable.”
When talking about the event from his perspective, Ferro went on to say, “To me, an event like this is so exciting because you get to see all the personalities of each organization shine through with the booths they run, and I hope it gives the rest of campus a different perspective on the way fraternities and sororities can and want to interact. Planning it has been extremely rewarding because I get to see firsthand that people are willing to help out other organizations for the benefit of the community, and these booths give us a chance to serve the rest of campus and create something that gets everybody engaged.”
I highly recommend everyone try to get out to the Paint Campus Pink fair to participate in all of the amazing activities planned, or donate toward the bake sale and raffle in order to contribute to this amazing cause.
