Theta Chi FIU fundraised for wounded veterans

Photo by public domain, via WikiMedia Commons 

Giselle Cancio/Staff Writer 

A fraternity event out of the norm – a cheerleading competition – was hosted by the gentleman of Theta Chi FIU in efforts to raise money for the U.S. military.

Cheers for Troops is a cheerleading competition between organizations to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project for wounded veterans. Ninety percent of the proceeds go towards the Wounded Warrior Project and 10 percent go towards the charity of choice by the sorority who accumulated the most spirit points throughout the week.

Spirit points were awarded throughout the month leading up to event day. They were earned based off of participation within a series of events throughout the entire month.

“The competition is a fun aspect, but a major point of this event was to raise awareness for our sometimes forgotten heroes within the military and I feel like it more than surpassed our expectations in promoting this,” Michael DiBono, the philanthropy chairman for Theta Chi, said.

The events held the week leading up the event included “Color Wars,” “Balloon Challenge,” “Cheers for my Dears,” “Captain Hunt” and “Brother Hunt.”

During “Color Wars,” each organization was assigned a specific nail color and team members had to go around painting the guys’ nails. At the end of the hour, whichever colors were on top were the teams that received points.

“Balloon Challenge” was similar with each organization having a specific color. For a small donation, if you blew up balloons for your team you received points; if others popped your organizations’ balloons, you lost points.

“Cheers for my Dears” included Theta Chi brothers dressing up as cheerleaders in order to perform “cheer grams,” or choreographed cheer routines. This was deemed one of the favorites of the week.

“The most successful to raise both awareness and money was ‘Cheers for My Dears;’ during this event in the [Graham Center] Pit, our fraternity brothers performed ‘Cheer Grams’ for people within lecture halls as big as 200 people.” DiBono said. “It was quite the show.”

People gathered to see what they would perform next.

“I was walking to class and I had to stop in my tracks,” Amanda Ruiz, junior majoring in education, said. “It was the coolest thing to see guys performing a quick routine and they were actually pretty good.”

Thursday and Friday had similar events – “Captain Hunt” and “Brother Hunt” – in which pictures were required to be uploaded to social media to earn points. The only catch, the brothers had to be in the pictures.

The Wounded Warrior Project is an organization that offers a variety of programs, services and events for wounded veterans following the events of 9/11.

The students of Theta Chi hosted Cheers for Troops last year for the first time.

“From last year to now, the event more than doubled in size, from 2 participating organizations increasing to 5,” DiBono said

Phi Sigma Sigma won Cheers for Troops with Alpha Xi Delta coming in second place. Tri Sigma accumulated the most spirit points, so they will be receiving 10 percent of the proceeds to their philanthropy of choice.

“It ran smoother, starting on time and running very efficiently, next year will be bigger and better,” DiBono said.

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