Turning Mass Row into a festive scene of song, dance and poetry, the July 26 “Proud to be Green” event raised approximately $700 for the Junction, a life-skills center for at-risk teens, Panhellenic Council summer philanthropy chair Jessica Zischke ’16 said, noting that an exact count has yet to determined. The Panhell-sponsored event included performances summer groups including SAUSSY, a dance group, and the Aquafellas, a group of water sports athletes who have formed a summer a capella group.
Four sororities contributed to the effort, and between 100 to 200 people attended the event, said Veri di Suvero ’16, one of Panhell’s two summer programming chairs, said.
Zischke said that organizers hoped to bring sustainability and the Dartmouth community together under the umbrella of philanthropy at the event. The intention behind involving performance groups — who were advertised prominently in an email to campus advertising the event – was to draw students and their families to the event and to encourage donations, for which the top priority was raising money, she said.
“At the end of the day, the money is for the Junction,” she said.
Donations, a raffle and the sale of merchandise and food contributed to the total. The event also featured a pop-up jewelry booth as well as a raffle, whose prizes included gift cards to and baked foods from local businesses.
A series of smaller events this summer has replaced the Jamboree for the Junction event, which has been run for the past two years over sophomore family weekend. Panhell reduced costs by undertaking the new fundraiser, Panhell’s summer vice president public relations Simone D’Luna ’16. said, which was one of its goals.
In the summer of 2012, Jamboree for the Junction raised more than $2,500, according to estimates provided by organizers at the time. Organizers also estimated an attendance of close to 300 students.
Di Suvero said while one of the event’s goals was to raise money, it had no fixed fundraising target.
“What I loved about it was sort of the fact that everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves,” di Suvero said.
Di Suvero did note that she felt organizers struggled at times to balance the performance aspects of the event with its focus on philanthropy.
Katie Yu ’16, who attended the event, said she found the event to be focused more around performance.
Yu said she was aware the event was for a local cause, but was not sure who benefitted from the money raised. She did add that she felt the event’s emcees’s “did a good job of bringing [the event] back to its roots,” by mentioning the event’s philanthropic goals.
D’Luna, a member of SAUSSY, said she thought performance groups drew audience members to the event.
Di Suvero said that Panhell hopes to have a number of small events this summer that focus on philanthropy. As part of a series, which has focused on events beginning with the phrase “Proud to Be...” Panhell hosted another event, “Proud to Be a Greek Woman?” on July 15.
At the event, several sophomore women spoke, describing their experience with the Greek system. Zischke said that the council worked hard to select women from many spheres of campus life to offer a variety of opinions, including students who are not affiliated with Greek life and students from non-Panhell sororities.
“For that event, we really wanted to represent a sampling of the wide spectrum that is a Greek woman’s experience at Dartmouth,” Zischke said. “We wanted to facilitate conversation and give a forum for women to share their experiences to show how different they can be.”
Remaining events will also incorporate philanthropy for the Junction, Zischke said, though Saturday’s event was anticipated to raise the most money.
“Proud to be a ’16,” the next event in the series, will take place during Fieldstock, the weekend of Aug. 8. “Proud to be 14X” will occur on the last day of classes.
Zischke said that she is not sure if future Panhell boards will continue the series, as each summer board has a fair amount of freedom to plan new events.
Zischke is a member of The Dartmouth senior staff.
