Thank you to our 2011 cabinet for a year well served! May your star shine brightly in all that you do.

Perge!

October 2011 Newsletter

The October 2011 Newsletter is available!

Read about:

• Riding for a Cause – Rivalry Ride
• Get to know the 17-man Eta Class
• Fiji’s Studying Abroad
• XH Graduate News

Click here to read!

Fiji, AOPi and Sigma Gamma Rho's float for Homecoming!

The week of Homecoming was yet another great one for the Fijis of Chi Eta. Homecoming was Cajun-themed this year because the Homecoming game was against the Louisiana Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns. So, the Homecoming Committee agreed that a swamp theme would fit perfectly with these Cajuns from the Louisiana Bayou. This year, the pairing was an absolute shocker because the brotherswere paired with the women of Alpha Omicron Pi, who earlier on this year had won the overall award for their chapter just as Chi Eta had done. The pairing also consisted of a smaller service sorority on campus known as Sigma Gamma Rho, who were also excellent in their status at WKU. The week took off on Sunday as the men and women worked diligently on preparing their float which consisted of a fan boat straight out of the swamp. Many hours of hammering, stapling, nailing and cutting were put into this 30-foot-long trailer.

In the end, the outcome was spectacular. The float came together and looked beautiful and consisted of five moving/mechanical parts! How could the judges not possibly go for a float of this technological caliber? But Homecoming Week does mean more than building a float. Each night, once a satisfying amount of work had been completed on the float, the Phi Gams treated the all the lovely ladies to a dance at Briza Azul’s, a local spot in the downtown square of Bowling Green, to take some stress off of all the hard work everyone had all been putting in throughout the week. The themes for these occasions were quite hilarious, but that’s an entire story in its own.

Friday consisted of a float parade in which all floats were judged, followed by Big Red’s Roar which is the biggest pep rally of the year held for the football team. At this event, the pairings screamed their lungs out to see who would bring home Big Red’s Spirit Stick as well as see who would win the overall championship for Homecoming Week. The Brothers, along with the sisters of Alpha Omicron Pi and Sigma Gamma Rho grabbed a third place finish overall. This wasn’t the result that most brothers wanted, but in the end they represented themselves well, they fought hard, they showed their women a great time, and most importantly, they grew as a brotherhood which is all one could really ask for. Now the brothers move their focus to Greek Week in the Spring which is just another chance to prove themselves against their own potential.

Chi Eta Graduates, WKU’s Homecoming 2011 is this weekend!  
Below is a reminder of all the activities this weekend.  
We hope to see each of you on the Hill!

Friday, October 21st

Graduate Social 
(Bring your own drink, snacks provided)
8:00pm – ?
Home of Jeff Baynham
E-mail Jeff for directions or more info, jeff.baynham@wku.edu.
Saturday, October 22nd

Heuxmecoming Breakfast
9:00am – Noon
Chapter House
1311 College Street
Enjoy beignet breakfast with the brothers!

Tailgating
Noon – 3:00pm
The chapter will have a tent on WKU’s South Lawn complete with Cajiun food.
Our tent will be located near Preston Center, look for the FIJI flag!

WKU vs. Louisiana-Lafayette
3:00pm
Houchens-Smith Stadium
WKU comes back home on a two-game winning streak!  Support the Hilltoppers as they take on the #1 team in the conference!
Game tickets available at www.wkusports.com or by calling 800-5-BIG-RED

For more information about WKU Homecoming and other events, visit http://alumni.wku.edu/homecoming.

For more information on Phi Gamma Delta Homecoming,
contact Graduate Relations Chair, Brad Stephens
859-595-3816

The tenth and final carload of Chi Eta brothers arrived at the Beta Rho chapter house on the campus of LSU at 7:15 AM on Thursday, October 6^th. Eager to work, some brothers woke up at 8 to volunteer for the H.O.P.E. (Helping Other People Excel) House in Baton Rouge, LA. The H.O.P.E. House seeks to prevent people from becoming homeless. Others visited Connections For Life, a thrift store that hires women who have been in jail and helps them get back on their feet.

Later that day, all 38 brothers made their way to downtown Baton Rouge at noon to work the 24^th annual Jambalaya Jam. The festival is put on by United Way and includes 45 corporate sponsors competing in a Jambalaya cooking contest. Brothers worked the entire festival from 12-9 PM and did everything from serving drinks in the VIP lounge to breaking down the stages after the live bands performed. During their breaks, many brothers enjoyed naps on the 6^th floor of the Shaw Center overlooking the Mississippi River.  They also received All-You-Can-Eat wristbands and filled their stomachs with some local Jambalaya

Click here to view the embedded video.

Be sure to check out our video of the trip, made by WKU Fiji’s own Austin Wenger.

Once the volunteer work was done, the brothers got to relax back at the chapter house and enjoy some brotherhood time with some Beta Rho brothers. Friday morning brought many tired Fijis and empty Fiji stomachs. A brotherhood breakfast at Ihop was much needed before any work could be done. However, the group was not complete. Twelve brothers started earlier in the day and collected around 100 pounds of food from a neighborhood and dropped it off at the H.O.P.E. House.

By noon, all the brothers had made it out to Heritage Ranch, a 52-acre property in nearby Zachary, LA. The boys were greeted by a beautiful ranch including ponds and horse barns. Vicki Ellis, the ranch’s director, and her father, Larry, briefly introduced the mission of the ranch and the history of the property. Heritage Ranch’s mission is to strengthen and unify families and the community through a Christ-centered residential children’s Home. The program is aimed at youth in crises. They are currently going through all the steps to become operational and the brothers were more than happy to assist them. They trimmed back trees, painted rooms, repaired fences, and hung some misbehaving ceiling fans.

Around 4, with fatigue from the car ride and previous day’s work catching up, the brothers completed the jobs and quickly began playing with the children’s toys. Scooters went scooting, balls went flying, and Will Garcia went roller-blading. Once the chaos settled, Vicki led the brothers on a tour of the ranch and introduced her cartwheeling sons. Not to be outdone, Tyler Wittmer showed the four-year-old a backflip and Josh Wiseman yellow carded Wittmer for taunting. The four year old accepted the penalty and continued chewing on his Now-and-Laters.

Friday night was a free-for-all with some brothers journeying to New Orleans and others exploring campus. The sun rose on Saturday morning and so did the Chi Eta brothers, many to the rhythmic beating of a spoon on a bowl by Beta Rho corresponding secretary Anthony Gambino. The beating announced that LSU tailgating had begun. Brothers emerged from the chapter house to the sight of 200,000 Tiger fans on campus ready to see some football action against Florida. The intensity and electricity of LSU football took over and soon enough, Topper fans were Tiger baiting Gator fans.

Unfortunately, brothers had to hit the road at game time and were unable to watch LSU demolish Florida.  On the way home, many brothers stopped in nearby Clinton, LA, and paid their respects to Daniel Webster Crofts’ grave. The gravesite was a humbling place for pledges and brothers alike.

Brothers returned home with countless memories, stronger brotherhood, 16 hours of community service, fire ant bites, too many tweets, and some awesome Beta Rho t-shirts. The trip served as a reminder to many of how and why this fraternity has brought this group of men together. The service and brotherhood of the trip will surely stay with all 38 brothers that embarked on the 2011 Chi Eta Fall Break Community Service Trip.

Brothers in photo from left to right: Cody Hutchins, Will Garcia, Jason White, Sam Wells, Malcolm Lunceford and Bryan Hartzell.

On Sunday, October 2nd, twenty of WKU Fiji’s brothers embarked on a 100-mile journey through winding back roads, busy intersections, and yard sales to deliver the game ball to Middle Tennessee State University for the WKU football game that will be played there Thursday. Raising support for the American Red Cross was the driving factor in this ride. WKU Fiji does this annually each year, to raise money for the Red Cross to help the community. The men of Fiji rode their bikes with haste finishing the ride in a little less than 8 hours. With only 17 miles to go the riders were surprised by the one and only Bo Byers, who is WKU Fiji’s Section Chief, who took a huge load off of our plate by riding the ball a total of 30 feet. No good adventure is complete without a garage sale and with the finish line in sight brother Chris Kinney was momentarily distracted by a five star garage sale, single-handedly throwing off the timing of the whole event, but we did come away with a nice table and chair set for a great bargain. The brothers who participated in this annual event experienced an intense brotherhood bond that could never be broken. Well done boys, well done!

The men of Chi Eta met once more on the famous battlefield known as Lampkin Park, where boys become men. This park is known to many as the site of the epic water balloon showdown that occurred between the Fiji’s and the ladies of AOII. This time, however, the site played host to the inaugural Phi Gam Games.

The Phi Gam games featured the Eta pledge class and their big brothers pairing up and going against each other. The event, organized by big brother coordinator Josh Wiseman, featured four events, an egg toss, a wheelbarrow race, a sack race and a dizzy bat race.

The pairings lined the field and tossed the eggs back and forth, each pair hoping their egg would not burst all over them. In the end the team of Griffin Fruge and Zack Van Zant came out victorious, winning a wiffle ball and a bat.

The next event was a wheelbarrow race. One teammate would race down to the line and the other would race back. Spencer Wright and Will Linder would run away with this event. Their prize, the best of all, was a tea set, which they would use to host a tea party for all the competitors later that evening.

The ensuing competition would be a sack race. After having two heats, the finals featured six team. Chris Kinney and Kyle Stewart would prevail winning a prize that would help them to remember their childhood; soft playdoh.

The last event, the dizzy bat race, was also the most controversial one. This event also featured two heats and a finals round with six pairs. The team of Ben Aroh and Blake Neumann was neck in neck with Sam Knott and Eric Blair. Blake dove for the finish line and arrived at the same time as Eric. The event went into a tie breaking, featuring another egg toss. Ben and Blake’s egg would break on the first throw, giving Sam and Eric the victory, and a nice set of hot wheels cars.

The event was one for the ages and a real bonding experience for the pledge class and their big brothers. The chapter will look to continue these events in the years to come.

-Austin Lanter

Other sports results from around Fiji-land include a 31-9 victory for the FIJI/ADPi co-ed football team and FIJI/KD win in straight sets in volleyball to move to 2-0.

After lunch the families dismissed to go tailgate on The South Lawn before the WKU vs. Indiana State football game. The tailgate was a big hit. The brothers socialized with each others families while enjoying hamburgers and hotdogs from the grill. There was corn hole and plenty of food for everyone. It was a great day of brotherhood and good times. Everyone was disapointed by the game featured the Tops losing to the Sycamores 44-16

-Spencer Wright

-Will Garcia