Opening night from Greek Week 2023. Photo Courtesy of: Francesca Ordonez
From March 27 to 31, the University of Rhode Island’s Panhellenic and Interfraternity Councils held Greek Week, where fraternities and sororities were put into pairs to participate in a week of events and raise money for Habitat for Humanity and the YMCA.
This year’s Greek Week featured a lip-sync competition, a pageant and a service build, where they made playhouses for low-income families through Habitat for Humanity, one of their benefactors. A theme is also chosen for the week each year, and this year’s week had an ‘80s movie theme, titled “A Trip to the Drive-in.”
Kelsey Gil, a second-year nursing major with a minor in leadership studies and vice president of philanthropy for URI’s Panhellenic Council, talked about the other benefactor, YMCA, and what it was like working with these two organizations.
“We really wanted to focus on two organizations that are not only going to provide for low-income people, but to also help kids get off the streets and give them these opportunities, scholarships and resources that they wouldn’t have,” Gil said.
Francesca Ordoñez, a third-year communicative disorders major with a minor in human development and family science and leadership studies and vice president of programming for the panhellenic council, talked about the events that they held this year and how some were different from previous years.
Ordoñez said they do an opening day event, which is essentially a field day, on a Sunday every year to kick off the week. Normally, they would do a bubble soccer event or a tug-of-war, but since the Sunday of Greek Week landed on the same day as one of the University’s Welcome Days for admitted students, they had to switch it from a day event to a nighttime one.
Ordoñez said that they did a block party style opening night at fraternity circle. They did a chariot race when everyone arrived in the circle, and they also did their tug-of-war and garbage pong; which is basically like beer pong but with garbage cans and basketballs.
Gil said the day before opening night for Greek Week was when they built the playhouses for Habitat for Humanity. She mentioned that all the houses were customized to the things that the children like and are interested in.
“They were all customized to a couple of kids’ preferences and like which TV shows they liked and what sports they played,” Gil said. “And then they were able to come on Tuesday and see it in person and the houses that everyone has been working on for so long. And they came out really nice.”
Ordoñez added that the children didn’t know that they were getting these playhouses, and when they saw them they were so happy. Gil mentioned that there were a lot of tears from the parents and both Ordoñez and Gil agreed that it was very heartwarming to know that they contributed to someone’s life.
For the actual construction of the playhouses, the pairings that were made for the week each made their own houses. Volunteers from Habitat for Humanity came as well and helped build the houses too.
“So a couple of habitat volunteers came in and in frat circle we built playhouses then but we gave them like $85,000 to be able to make real houses,” Gil said. “And they also build ramps for people. Our theme this year was ‘Trip to the Drive-in.’ We also wanted to highlight giving back to low-income families because we’re also blessed to come to school here and not have these problems that they’re dealing with.”
According to both Gil and Ordoñez, Greek Life has raised about $195,000 in donations as of April 5. At the end of the actual week of events, they raised over $140,000.
Going back to Greek Week, however, Ordoñez mentioned that URI is one of the only colleges that hosts a Greek Week, and if others do, it’s not as big as URI’s.
Ordoñez added that it’s great that the University supports Greek Life in its fundraising efforts because Greek Life is sometimes looked down upon. She also talked about the importance of Greek Week and Greek Life.
“I think it’s significant because it shows like all other students at the University outside of Greek Life that they’re able to do more,” Ordoñez said. “I would have never thought coming here that I would be able to raise that much money like it makes such an impact and like the benefactors we chose.”
Ordoñez went on to say that the motivation for the competition aspect of Greek Week brings everyone together and even if people are from different organizations.
Both Ordoñez and Gil encourage people to join Greek Life if they’re interested and to attend their events, which are held throughout the school year, to see their work.