Alpha Sigma Phi (Alpha Sig) and Delta Phi Epsilon (DPhiE) rocked the competition in this year’s rock and roll themed Greek Week.
Greek Week officially kicked off Monday, April 10, with fieldgames. Each organization competed against each other in various lawn games.
From there, a community dinner and a MrBeast inspired challenge was held in the Mabel Brown Room of the student center on Tuesday, April 11.
MrBeast is a popular YouTube channel that provides content to over 146 million subscribers. In those videos, MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, has people compete in different challenges to win large sums of money or expensive items. One challenge consisted of participants keeping their hand on an expensive car, and the longest to keep their hand on it won the car.
The MrBeast challenge that followed had members that participated stay inside a circle the longest, and whoever stayed in the longest were able to win prizes. All of Greek Week was not just about competition, but also spending time together.
“Greek life is about talking to your peers, not being separated, no matter what group you’re in you can connect,’’ said junior Marcus Rusch, the Vice President of Programs for Alpha Sigma Phi.
Phi Sigma Sigma member first-year Sophia Bates said she decided to throw her hat into the competition because “it’s a chance to connect with everyone in greek life, plus 75 percent of my sorority goes, we all get points toward Greek Week.”
In the middle of Greek Week, the organizations held their Family Feud-style event on April 12 in the Mabel Brown Room.
During the event, fraternities and sororities competed against each other, guessing the most popular answers to questions such as, “Name something a person might keep in a cellar,” or, “Name something associated with vampires.”
Each organization sent up five of their members to compete. The organizations rotated through, so they all ended up competing against each other; however, the fraternities and sororities never went up against each other. It was only fraternity versus fraternity, and sorority versus sorority.
At the end of the Family Feud event, the fraternities and sororities handed out their superlatives to their members.
During the Philanthropy night held on Thursday, April 13, letters of kindness written by many Greek Life students traveled out into the world. Fraternity and sorority life members were able to send a letter of kindness to the charity their fraternity or sorority donates to.
This year’s Service Event was hosted by both Vice Presidents of service. Equinox staff member junior Zach Murphy and senior Emma Sonnati hosted the philanthropy event. From St. Jude Children’s Hospital to the Circle of Sisters, each charity was sent a letter of kindness.
Sonnati said, “The impact of reading is important to each of the charities as well as Greek Life itself, it’s also there to brighten someone’s day and maybe make someone smile.”
Additionally, in the science center, members raised money for MCVP and Circle of Sisters. A Mario Kart Tournament was held, where players could pay $5 to donate to both of the charities.
The final event of Greek Week, Air Band, was held Friday, April 14, also in the Mabel Brown Room.
The event had fraternities and sororities create remixes and dance and lip sync to them.
The Air Band event was open to the Keene State community as well, to watch the show. Those that came to the show yelled and laughed as the event was going on. Throughout the performances, some even brought signs to support their favorite organization.
Vice President of academic affairs for DPhiE junior Peyton Perroni said it was amazing getting together and getting involved in the community during Greek Week.
“It’s a new experience every time, especially as I grow older and make new connections, it’s unique every year,” said Perroni.
She said her sorority practiced for around two weeks every night in preparation for Air Band.
DPhiE members junior Riley Brouillard and senior Ariana Arrington both said that Greek Week was really fun and went well. Compared to previous years, Brouillard said that each year is unique in its own ways. This year, however, she said, “This one, the music was so high energy.”
She added that Air Band is her favorite event to participate in.
“This is the highlight of my spring semester,” Brouillard said.
Being that this was Arrington’s first time participating in Air Band, she said it exceeded her expectations.
“It was just amazing, everything I ever wanted it to be,” she said.
Similarly, Arrington noted that this year’s theme got everyone “hyped and excited.”
Member of Alpha Sig sophomore Eric Silverstien said Greek Week was a lot of fun and commented on the nice weather during the week.
“It was a great experience being with everyone from Greek life,” said Silverstien.
He added that Air Band was his favorite event because it was the most rewarding out of all of them.
“We came into it with the mindset we’re coming out of it as winners. We won last year, so it’s great to just win again,” he said.
Alpha Sig member sophomore Samuel Millham said he was a little nervous about Greek week because he hasn’t done anything like it before, but he said it went a lot better than expected.
Millham said that during Air Band, “we had a few hiccups, but overall I feel like everything went great.”
“Especially practiced a lot, which I feel like definitely did help us a lot,” he added.
This year’s Air Band event saw the members dancing to a lot of rock songs to fit the theme of the event.
Each organization was assigned a band to fit that theme.
One winner of Greek Week, Alpha Sig, was assigned the band Weezer.
During their performance, songs like “Beverly Hills” and “Undone – The Sweater Song” played. During “Undone – The Sweater Song,” Millham attempted to rip a sweater off of himself. However, he said that they accidentally bought a triple stitched sweater, which made it difficult.
The other winner, DPhiE, was assigned the band Nirvana and did their dance routines to songs like “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Something In The Way.”
Winners were announced at the end of the Air Band event.
Greek Week officially concluded with a trash pick up to give back to the community on Saturday, April 15.
Tim Bruns can be contacted at
tbruns@kscequinox.com
Clayton Price can be contacted at
clayton.price@keene.edu
