Criminal justice major wins Hearts in pageant

Giselle Cancio/Staff Writer

On Tuesday, the Las Vegas Casino King of Hearts pageant raised over $10,000 for the Sigma Kappa Foundation.

Being a traditional theme for the past five years, there were 12 contestants aiming to win the hearts of the Sigma Kappa sisters.

“The hard work and sleepless nights have been beyond worth it,” Bianca Pino, president of Sigma Kappa, senior majoring in sociology said. “We were able to surpass last year’s total which was $8,000, and crown a great individual that cares so much about our philanthropy and organization, which in the end was all we wanted.”

The 2014 King of Hearts is David Maya. He is a brother of Phi Gamma Delta (FIJI) and is a junior studying criminal justice.

“I have an interest in spreading awareness about Alzheimer’s, having lost my grandmother a little over a year ago to this fatal disease,” he wrote in his application.

Pino is excited to work with him throughout the year and hopes to build a bond that will take their philanthropy work to the next level, while creating lasting memories along the way.

The planning for the event started during winter break, and it resulted in a week of tabling, a pit event and of course, the pageant.

Tabling was done for viewer’s choice donations and the selling of event shirts. The pit event was called “Are You Smarter than a SigKap?” and it was a jeopardy game against Sigma Kappa sisters. They also incorporated a ticket power hour sale where contestants had to compete to sell the most tickets. The winner received additional viewers choice points.

“In a King of Hearts, we expect a gentleman that can uphold our chapter’s values of Personal Growth, Loyalty, Friendship and Service, as well as having morals and values that can apply to our chapter.” Pino said. “Our chapter devotes their time and energy to our value of Service and we would want our King of Hearts to hold that same kind of passion and drive for us to continue giving back to our community.”

The pageant consisted of four rounds. The first round was introductions, where the contestant briefly introduced himself. The second round was impersonations, where each contestant had the opportunity to do their best impersonation of up to three sisters. The third round was scenarios, where each contestant was put in a situation where King of Hearts would need to help solve the problem or issue. The final round was trivia, where random questions pertaining to Sigma Kappa’s philanthropy and history were asked along with why they wanted to be King of Hearts.

All proceeds go towards the Sigma Kappa Foundation which donates towards all three of Sigma Kappa’s philanthropies: Gerontology with a focus in Alzheimer’s, Inherit The Earth and Maine Sea Coast Mission. It also provides scholarships to Sigma Kappa sisters nationwide and a relief fund for sisters and their families that may have been affected by natural disasters.

This foundation is considered both the local and national philanthropy because the foundation supports three different causes.

There have been four previous King of Heart’s prior to this: Javier Nahmias (Beta Theta Pi) 2010, Alexander Estrada (Theta Chi) 2011, Luis Portuondo (Tau Kappa Epsilon) 2012, Rodrigo Aldorino (Sigma Phi Epsilon) 2013.

“I would say the biggest success besides having raised so much money for great causes is that due to King of Hearts, our national headquarters will be awarding us the Platinum Circle award,” Pino said, “which is an award to the Sigma Kappa chapters that raise the most money towards the Sigma Kappa Foundation.”

giselle.cancio@fiusm.com