G is for Greek: Greeks prepare for patriotic homecoming

Louisville freshman Alexa Wagoner, of Alpha Omicron Pi, dashes forward to complete the water portion of the Greek Games. Members of the Greek community participated in the games Wednesday.

Monta Reinfelde

Homecoming explains the unusual fuss around campus for the past week. Members of the Greek organizations are more noticeable now than during the rest of the year, having various events and most importantly preparing everything for the long-anticipated weekend.

Lexington senior Whitney Jones said this is definitely the busiest time of the year for Greek organizations at WKU. Jones is a member of Chi Omega sorority, and is currently working on a float for the Friday parade.

“Every day we are working a couple of hours a day, and we are doing that with a fraternity we are paired with,” she said.

All sororities and fraternities will present their floats in the parade that will start on campus and go all the way downtown.

Besides the actual Homecoming game, the Homecoming queen competition and the float parade, Greeks have had a lot of other activities during the week. They made banners with this year’s Homecoming theme, “Red, White, and WKU,” mingled after long days of work, and participated in Greek Games on Wednesday afternoon.

“(The Greek Games) are a lot of fun,” Jones said. “They are really competitive and kind of like a field day pretty much.”

Alexis Bigham, a member of Alpha Gamma Delta sorority, also participated in the Greek Games. The Bowling Green junior said the best part of the games is time spent with friends and getting to know new people.

“We don’t practice for that, but sometimes we have games like these in our sorority house,” she said. “Of course we want to win, but having fun is over winning.”

Bigham joined the sorority at the end of her sophomore year wanting to be more involved with the school and community. She said people make Greeks look like they are all about partying, but that is not true.

“It’s really about getting to know your sisters and caring about all the people,” Bigham said. “We are really big on philanthropy, we raise money for diabetes research. Of course you are going to have people who will party . . . We always encourage people to be safe when they do party, but it’s not all about it. It’s really not.”

Murfreesboro, Tenn., freshman Connor Shea agreed with Bigham and adds that in order to be in his fraternity, Lambda Chi Alpha, every member has to be involved in two other clubs to stay active as well as do service hours and study hours.

Shea is a member of SGA and on the WKU men’s tennis team. He said Greek life never interferes with school.

“Academics and athletics come first,” he said. “It is tough, but it doesn’t give time to procrastinate. Those are things that a lot of people don’t see.”