Blast from the Past: Greek Week Festivities

Danielle DeVries || Asst. Feature Editor

This week marks the annual Greek Week competition here on campus. Fraternities and Sororities are in the midst of the festivities, which began on Monday, March 14 and will continue on through Thursday, March 17.

The competition consists of a series of events each resulting in points being awarded, with an overall winner being crowned at the end of the week. Each of the university’s 18 sororities and fraternities pair up for the week, competing as a team to take home the grand prize, a trophy and some serious bragging rights.

The first event was a coin war, which occurred on Monday with all proceeds donated to this year’s philanthropy, Operation Help a Hero. This particular charity supports American troops by making care packages to send overseas. The event took place in front of the UCs from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m.

Tuesday’s competition was a field day, located on the valley field during dead hours. The components of field day include an inflatable relay course, a burrito-eating contest, male and female arm wrestling, and a musical chairs competition.

Wednesday highlights philanthropy night, which goes from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the UC forums. Each team will have the opportunity to put together care packages for troops to be donated to Operation Help a Hero.

Thursday is the last day of competition and there will be two major events. The first is the academic bowl, taking place in the UC’s from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. The bowl consists of three rounds: a trivia challenge, a spelling bee, and an impromptu speech.

The last event of the week is skits, where each team performs a skit that corresponds with this year’s theme, Blast from the Past. The skit competition will take place Thursday night from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Jenny Craig Pavilion.

A panel of five judges, a combination of USD faculty and staff, evaluates the skits and points are awarded to each team accordingly. At the end of the night the winner of Greek Week 2016 will be announced in addition to several honorable mention awards, including most spirited fan crowd, best fundraisers, and most sportsmanlike attitude.

Although Monday and Tuesday’s Greek week events are wrapped up, there is still time to participate in Wednesday and Thursdays activities. The entire campus is invited to come out to watch any or all of the upcoming events. Additionally, if anyone wishes to donate to Operation Help a Hero they can do so via the Greek Week GoFundMe campaign. For more information on this, or any of the events of Greek Week, the Fraternity and Sorority Life office can be found in the SLP office 301.