Greeksgiving
How do Loyola students give back?
Well, one of the ways that the Sorority and Fraternity Life organizations came up with is Greeksgiving – led by Allyssa Suarez, a sister of Delta Phi Lambda and the Programming Chair for the Multicultural Greek Council, the idea was to make bags and fill them with supplies that the people experiencing homelessness in Chicago may need.
Last Sunday, members from both the Multicultural Greek Council and the Panhellenic Council gathered in Palm Court to get to work! Although neither the Interfraternity Council nor some orgs in the Councils that did come showed up, the work still got done – and hours before schedule, too!
The organizations, before this day, had gathered resources to donate, from warm cold-weather accessories like scarves and mittens to razors and shaving cream, feminine products and toothbrushes, hair brushes and water bottles, granola bars and baby wipes. Setting them all out was wonderful to look at and to know we would be giving these.
Each person there decorated the brown paper bags that we would be putting the items inside in a holiday theme, whether it was a menorah or the sun wearing sunglasses and a santa hat. You can see other designs on the picture below. Then, we assembled them and made holiday notes to slip in there too, just for good measure.
Overall, we made just under 50 bags!
Although of course we wish we could make more, we ended the event glad we were able to give, even just a little bit. No two bags were alike, due to the variety of supplies we received from the organizations, and they’ll be handed out sometime next week by the Labre ministry group on campus, who work to build relationships with people experiencing homelessness in Chicago and give them food as well. You can learn more about their work here!
This upcoming holiday season, it’s certainly much easier to think about the people suffering around us, since everyone is big into the, well, holiday spirits, and the cold sets in. Equally important, though, is thinking of others outside of this season, so I hope the tri-Greek council will be able to keep doing events like this into next year! That’s the true Loyola spirit!
How do you give back?