Festival ends all-Greek event

Tuesday, April 20, 2010 - 12:55 AM

The first annual Greek-A-Palooza was held Saturday in an effort to give back to the Reno community as well as promote unity among all sororities and fraternities. The Panhellenic, InterFraternity and Multicultural Greek Councils hosted the event and hoped the Palooza would show the community what Greeks are all about.

“Philanthropy is really important because it is always good to give back to the community,” said Amber Slater, a 19-year-old nutrition major and member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority. “This was a really fun and good way to bring the Greek community together.”

The event was divided into two parts. The first was a clean-up of Wingfield Park in downtown Reno held early Saturday morning. The more than 300 Greeks at the event also spent time with children from Big Brothers Big Sisters.

The second half of the event was a celebration from 4 to 7 p.m. in front of the Joe Crowley Student Union. The event offered free T-shirts and food and was open to the public. Dunk tanks and bounce houses provided entertainment. The Make a Wish Foundation and Big Brothers Big Sisters also tabled at the festival and accepted clothes, money and food donations.

Vice-president of the InterFraternity Council, Lance Kurtz, a 21-year-old finance and economics major, said the purpose of the celebration was to foster unity within the Greek community.

As a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon, Kurtz said he is familiar with the competitive nature of the Greek houses.

“We just want to build healthy relationships between the houses and break the stereotypes that many people have of Greeks,” said Kurtz, who felt the event was a success.

According to the Greek community, some of those stereotypes include drinking and partying. Members said that the community doesn’t understand what sororities and fraternities are all about.

“We really wanted to show the community what we do as Greeks,” Kurtz said. “Not many people know that we donate over 10,000 hours of time every year and raise hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

“We promoted the best we could, setting a foundation for the event to be improved upon for next year,” said Kurtz. “Making a difference and having a good afternoon was all that mattered.”