On March 3, 2015, the Cal Epsilon chapter participated in the annual Kid's Day newspaper fundraiser, selling special editions of the Fresno Bee benefiting Valley Children's Hospital. The Cal Epsilon chapter sold 200 newspaper at an intersections on campus near the beef pastures. Cal Epsilon is proud to announce that we were able to raise over $376 to help Valley Children's Hospital! We are humbled to participate, once again, at this annual event and are proud to have made a difference in the lives of children across the valley.

Four members of the Townshend Chapter at The Ohio State University participated in Ohio State's annual dance marathon, BuckeyeThon.  BuckeyeThon is a 24 hour dance marathon divided into two 12 hour shifts that raises money for the Children's Miracle Network.  BuckeyeThon is also the largest student-run philantrophy at Ohio State and raises money for Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio throughout the year through a variety of events.  This year BuckeyeThon dancers raised over $1,231,290.00.  Alpha Zeta members were just four of the hundreds of dancers that never sat down during a 12 hour shift.  They danced the night away for the kids.     

The NC Chapter invited its Brothers and candidates to a traditional retreat at Roanoke Christian Service Camp.  There, we met the new candidates and completed a service project to improve the camp.

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.”

We visited the zoo and helped out with different chores.

Alpha Zeta Puerto Rico Chapter participated on the breast cancer support march on October 23^rd. This is the march for which we sold t-shirts, bracelets, hats and pins to help raise funds. The march was around our college campus and at the end everybody got together to form a giant pink bra.

AZP members participated in an event run by Buckeyes against Hunger, an OSU student group that raises awareness about homelessness and also raises money for the MidOhio Food Bank. The event, called Cardboard City, gave our members insight into what it would be like to be homeless by requiring them to make a shelter out of a box and sleep outside in it.  The night also consisted of activities to learn the facts about homelessness and also hear from a representative of a local shelter.   This was a great experience for our members and allowed them to learn about ways they could volunteer in the Columbus community.  Our AZP members personally raised $250 for the MidOhio Food Bank and would like to contribute more by doing more activities in the future.