Campus Spotlight: The University of Iowa, Multicultural Greek Council
The Multicultural Greek Council (MGC) at the University of Iowa hosted its 3rd Annual Penny Wars fundraiser during the 2013 Greek Week. Every fraternity and sorority that participated was paired or grouped together, and assigned their own plastic container to collect change. Each cluster consisted of two or three chapters. Penny wars are a tried and true fundraiser and competition, but for those campuses that are not aware, the goal of a “Penny War” competition is for a team to have the most pennies in their containers. Pennies were counted as positive points and silver coins and dollar bills were negative points, for example $5.00 bill = -500 points and 1 Nickel = -5 points.
During Greek Week at the University of Iowa, Greeks swarmed the Penny Wars table at every event, checking for pennies in their jars and sabotaging the other teams with silver coins and dollar bills. On the third and last day of Penny Wars, the containers were over-flowing with donations and MGC ended up having to provide more containers. After three days of collecting spare change and some friendly competition, Gamma Phi Beta and Phi Delta Theta won with a positive $147.34 while Zeta Tau Alpha, Delta Upsilon and Phi Gamma Delta lost with a -$192.32 and MGC was able to donate $1,538.96 to Circle of Sisterhood Foundation.
The MGC was thrilled to be able to support such a wonderful cause. Penny Wars has always been a successful event during Greek Week—nothing like a little friendly competition! Spare change to help create real change for women and girls around the world, made the event powerful. MGC looks forward to continuing to host this fundraiser in the years to come, and to continue to support the Circle of Sisterhood Foundation. One world, one sisterhood.
This week’s Campus Spotlight contributor is Kelsey F. Ricke. She is a sophomore at the University of Iowa pursuing a degree in Business Management with a certificate in International Business and minor in Spanish. She currently serves on the Multicultural Greek Council as the Vice President of Marketing. Kelsey enjoys traveling and experiencing new cultures and is a proud member of Sigma Lambda Gamma Sorority Incorporated.