For the first two weeks of the semester, brothers from the Florida Chapter participated in a shoe drive run by a UF student organization called Just Shoe It.  Throughout the year, Just Shoe It conducts several shoe collections, each focused on a different group of recipients.  For this collection, all donations went to local blueberry workers in need of sneakers or work boots.  It was great to be able to support local community members in agriculture!

The first pledge meeting happened on February 10th. We have 16 pledges this spring semester, and their first meeting was very successful. I introduced them to the purpose and history of the Fraternity, and they had their officer elections at the end of the meeting. 

We can't wait to see what our pledge class will accomplish!

The Florida Chapter of Alpha Zeta began their co-rec 5 on 5 basketball season last week. After a depressing loss of 50 to 19 the first week, the team improved tremendously the second week. A few of our brothers came out to cheer us on. Although most of us aren't basketball stars, we dedicate the time to have a weekly practice to improve our skills. This is a great team-building sport, because not only are we working together to achieve a goal, but we are working on our communication skills as well. It looks like its going to be a great season! 

The Florida Chapter held their rush week events including sand volleyball, game night, and movie night. New recruits came out to play a game of sand volleyball. Even though we live in the sunshine state, the sand was still a bit too cold for our toes. But all in all it was a fun time. The next day we hosted game night. Here we played card games, sat around in a circle, and got to know one another. The last rush week event was the dinner and movie night. Dinner was catered by publix  subs and the movie was Lets be Cops. All of the events were successful and recruits were able to get to know the brothers a bit better and ask questions about our Chapter, AZ as a whole, and advice for interviews which will be held this week.

The Florida Chapter’s final service event of the semester occurred on Saturday, December 6^th with Habitat for Humanity.  To build homes for families in need, Alachua Habitat relies on the generosity of community members in the form of donations and volunteer labor.  For our service event, we spent the day on a Habitat for Humanity build site helping complete various construction tasks for a house in progress.  Knowing that our efforts of the day contributed to helping provide for a family in our community was very rewarding and well worth the sweat!  

 

At our chapter meeting the week before Thanksgiving, the Florida Chapter held a donation drive to benefit the St. Francis House.  St. Francis House offers aid to those in our community who are less fortunate or without homes, whether it be through their soup kitchen, transitional housing program, or job placement services.  In just one chapter meeting, our brothers donated almost 100 canned goods and non-perishable food items, which we were able to deliver to the St. Francis House just in time for Thanksgiving!

The road that the Florida Chapter adopted through Gainesville’s Adopt-A-Street program got quite a few visits from us this semester, and we plan to continue that routine in the new year!  Our last road clean up was held on November 13^th, and we had a great time getting to know each other better while helping to keep the road and shoulder clean and safer for pedestrians.

The Florida Chapter volunteered at the Alachua County Humane Society twice more this semester, once in October and once in November.  Just as our first trip to the Humane Society this semester, brothers had a great time playing with the animals while doing some cleaning and housekeeping.  The Humane Society loves the extra help, and we are always more than happy to do what we can!  Olivia, one of our brothers, put it best when she said, “So glad to have been able to spend the morning with my brothers and so many special little critters.  I’m so glad that Alpha Zeta took me in and that we get to do such amazing things within our community.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRbpQ0AhbMU&feature=youtu.be

On November 17th, the Florida Chapter had the pleasure of welcoming 18 new brothers to our Fraternity! After a grueling 7 week process, the 18 pledges completed all of their requirements and were initiated. 

The evening started off with the initiation ceremony, followed by a buffet style dinner and Dr. Charles Guy's presentation on plants and human health, and concluded with the pledge class Chronicler's video presentation and awards. In attendance were the faculty sponsors, the newly initiated pledges, and fraternity brothers.

Three awards were given out: Best Paddle, Most Outstanding Pledge, and Most Outstanding PC officers. Congratulations to Stephen, Brittney, and Maya respectively for your achievements, and a big welcome to our new Brothers! We can't wait for next semester!