Kaylee Hunkins
Multimedia Director
It wasn’t quite ladies’ night in the Mabel Brown Room on Saturday, Nov. 12, but the male contestants of Deepher Dude dressed to impress.
Delta Phi Epsilon hosted their fifth annual Deepher Dude male beauty pageant. The dudes consisted of males from different fraternities on campus. Rebecca Leclerc, vice president of programming for Delta Phi Epsilon, said their main goal initially was to have males from different organizations on campus. Leclerc said they did not want it to be strictly a Greek life event, but a campus event. However, only fraternities ended up competing.
Colber Prosper was the MC for the event. Prosper said he got involved in the event after he took part in a leadership retreat at Camp Cody.
“There I met a couple of the women from Delta Phi Epsilon and we had a good time. I was honored when the girls asked me to be the MC for this event,” he said.
The Deepher contestants competed in five different categories: swimwear, sleepwear, evening dress, ladies’ night (where the men dressed as women), a talent portion, and a questionnaire.
Although notoriously fun, the main goal was to raise money for cystic fibrosis.
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Cystic fibrosis is one of Delta Phi Epsilon’s philanthropies. A philanthropy is an organization that Greek life reaches out to each year to raise money and awareness for. Each sorority and fraternity has different charity groups such as this.
“Cystic fibrosis is a chronic disease that effects the lungs. It affects 30,000 people in the United States and about 700,000 throughout the world,” Leclerc said. “It clogs their lungs making it hard for them to breathe. It gives them life-threatening lung infections. In the past people with cystic fibrosis have barely lived to get to middle school or even through elementary school and now people with cystic fibrosis can live well into their thirties, but we are trying to make that even longer.”
Leclerc said one of the new components of the event was making the audience breathe through straws. Leclerc said doing so for 30 seconds to a minute is similar to how people with cystic fibrosis breathe throughout their entire life.
“A lot of people die before the age of 25. Having little kids die from cystic fibrosis is what makes it really important to us,” Leclerc said.
Denise Perna, a Delta Phi Epsilon sister, participated during the breathing through a straw activity.
“It was very, very difficult to breathe and I don’t think I could ever do that,” she said.
Perna said this event is important to her because someone she knew died of cystic fibrosis.
“This foundation remains close to my heart because of my friend’s brother who passed away from cystic fibrosis,” she said.
Along with cystic fibrosis, Delta Phi Epsilon does community service for Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, or ANAD.
Leclerc said it’s another organization that a lot of people don’t raise money for and don’t know too much about. The sorority believes working on behalf of ANAD is another great way to give back to the community, especially for those who very much need it.
Leclerc said, “Cancer is one of the most common diseases that people fundraise for. There are other diseases that need more attention and cures as sad as that may sound.”
Winner of Deepher Dude, Jamie Blustein of Tau Kappa Epilson, said it was nice to win because he lives in the Delta Phi Epsilon house. The Deepher Dude winner is awarded the pleasure of making the sorority sisters sing on command.
“It’s going to be fun because I can make them sing whenever I want. Since I live with them I am going to make them sing every morning,” he said.
Delta Phi Epsilon raised $300 last year, and bettered that this year with a total of $428.
Leclerc said she hopes that the money will help find a cure.
“It’s one of those things that you want to do, but you can’t because there is no cure for it and the more money raised for it hopefully they will be able to find a cure for it,” she said.
For information about Deepher dude go to www.keene-equinox.com and check out some highlights as well as interviews on video.
Kaylee Hunkins can be contacted at khunkins@keene-equinox.com
