Campus Spotlight – University of Minnesota
The ladies of Mu Chapter of Rho Lambda, at the University of Minnesota decided to hold a spring philanthropy event benefitting Circle of Sisterhood. Rho Lambda is the National Sorority Leadership Recognition Society; the Greek letters Rho Lambda stand for Panhellenic Leadership. Mu Chapter of Rho Lambda has grown significantly in the last year, and they wanted to be more than an honor society; they were looking for a way to give meaning to their Rho Lambda membership and they found Circle of Sisterhood Foundation. In January, the executive board came together and decided that they wanted to host a philanthropy event for an organization. When Circle of Sisterhood was brought up, they all agreed that this was a perfect match for their organization. Cassie Parish, Vice President of Philanthropy for Rho Lambda stated that “As an honors society for college women, the idea of helping girls receive an education fit perfectly with our goals.”
At the first meeting of the semester, the executive board shared their idea to support Circle of Sisterhood and everyone loved it. They planned to have a bake sale, and members were excited to showcase their baking skills and donate goods. “We are lucky to have almost 100 women in Rho Lambda, which made supplying the bake sale a breeze,” said Parish. As the semester went on, Rho Lambda continued to plan, with the help of the Panhellenic Council and the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life, and the bake sale came to life on March 26th.
Rho Lambda’s bake sale was a huge success. Because they were able to donate all of the baked goods, they could maximize the amount we could donate to the Circle of Sisterhood. They were very clear with the community that every cent would be going to the Foundation. “We chose to support Circle of Sisterhood because we loved the idea of Sorority women coming together to support women around the world,” said Parish, and they shared this message with the community during the event. The savvy fundraisers of Rho Lambda had a few baked goods leftover at the end of the event, so they walked them on over to the nearby fraternities and sold the remaining items. It is always great to hear that our brothers in the fraternity community are actively supporting the Foundation and women’s education, too!
In the end, Rho Lambda at the University of Minnesota raised $600 dollars for Circle of Sisterhood Foundation. That is enough to send eleven girls to school; OR to buy 20 school uniforms; OR to provide 181 girls with lunches for a year. Every dollar counts! Thank you Rho Lambda at the University of Minnesota, we cannot wait to see what creative fundraising idea you come up with next semester!
Is your campus supporting the Foundation? We would love to hear about it! Share your story with blog@circleofsisterhood .org.