Panhellenic Pride week meant to bring sororities together

Amanda Young

WKU’s Panhellenic Council is hosting the first Panhellenic Pride Week in hopes to bring all of the women from every sorority closer together.

Panhellenic Pride Week consists of several events for every organization to participate in and meet other women outside of their own sorority.

“Sometimes, in the Greek community, we have a lot of events that tend to bring out the competitiveness in chapters,” Greek Affairs Coordinator Alissa Mansfield said. “The goal of the week is just to build more community among the Panhellenic chapters.”

Heather Ashby, the Panhellenic Council President, said that the council members came up with the idea after attending the Southeastern Panhellenic Conference last semester.

“We learned that a lot of councils do this pride week to promote Panhellenic unity and getting campus involved in what we’re doing as a Panhellenic council. So we decided to adopt this,” said Ashby, a senior and a member of Alpha Delta Pi.

The week will begin Monday with a sister sorority event.

“They’re paired up with a sorority that maybe they don’t interact with as much and they get to plan an event together,” Mansfield said.

The sororities have the option of gathering with other paired organizations at Jackson’s Orchard, but have the freedom to plan their own events.

Tuesday is Griff’s night — all of the organizations have dinner at Griff’s Deli and take turns helping out serving.

Ten percent of the money raised Tuesday from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. will be donated to the Circle of Sisterhood, the philanthropy that all the organizations participate in.

“Every sorority has its own philanthropy, but we as Panhellenic have a philanthropy,” Ashby said. “Our philanthropy is to help underprivileged young girls get an education.”

The founder of Circle of Sisterhood, Ginny Carroll, will be speaking on Wednesday at the weekly Panhellenic Council meeting.

Carroll is a WKU alumna as well as a member of Alpha Xi Delta.

“All of our sisters are excited to come and show our support for her and make her proud of what we’ve started doing here on campus,” said Becky Wilbanks, Educational Leader Consultant for Alpha Xi Delta.

Mari Ann Callais will speak to all of the organizations on Thursday night in Downing University Center Auditorium.

Participants will have the opportunity to hear Callais speak about the values and responsibilities of being a part of a sorority.

“Everyone is asked to bring a dollar,” Wilbanks said. “All of those funds will go towards Circle of Sisterhood to help provide that opportunity for all women to be educated.”

To close out the week, the organizations will sell hot chocolate at Centennial Mall on Friday.

The drinks will be a dollar each with all the proceeds going to the Circle of Sisterhood.

“We’re really excited,” Ashby said. “As far as I know, every sorority is participating in this week and everyone is really excited. We’re expecting great attendance and we’re hoping that we will raise quite a bit of money for our philanthropy.”

Wilbanks is hopeful that pride week will bring the girls together.

“It’s designed to get all of the women in Panhellenic geared up and excited about the organizations that they have joined and being together and having this common bond of sisterhood,” she said.