Greek Week celebrates fraternities and sororities

Greek Week is an anticipated tradition for Mason’s Greek organizations.

The event originally only included the 15 recognized National Inter-Fraternity Conference fraternities and the six National Panhellenic Conference sororities, but now encompasses all social Greek councils, which include the National Pan-Hellenic Council and the Multicultural Greek Council.

The overall goal of Greek Week is not only to promote Greek life, but to raise awareness and funds for Habitat for Humanity and canned food donations for Food for Others, a Fairfax food bank.

According to a celebratory post on Phi Kappa Sigma’s Facebook page, nearly 20,000 canned goods were collected for Food for Others. just two days into this year’s Greek Week.

To give raising funds, awareness and donations for Habitat for Humanity and Food for Others a competitive edge, Greek Week is also a competition among the Mason fraternities and sororities.

In the past, each fraternity and sorority represented only their organization. Each Panhellenic sorority would compete against the other Panhellenic sororities to win the title of Greek Week sorority champions, and the IFC fraternities would compete for the fraternity Greek Week champions title.

Now, with 36 social greek organizations involved, there are teams that represent each council, and each team is comprised of six organizations.

Throughout the week, events are held to earn points for teams, such as Shack-A-Thon, kiosk check-ins, Field Day, Aquatics Night and Greek Sing.

For Shack-A-Thon, each team builds shacks out of recyclable products, such as cardboard and water bottles, to raise awareness for Habitat for Humanity and to collect canned food donations for Food for Others.

Kiosk check-ins occur each day as a way for each team to earn points.

Field Day is similar to the field day events held in elementary and middle school. Teams compete against each other in sack races, dizzy bat, relays, tug-of-war and other field day racing games.

Aquatics Night and Greek Sing tend to be the two more popular events of the week, as they show off each teams’ talent in the water and on the stage.

Aquatics Night includes events like synchronized swimming and relays, and in the past there were diving contests.

Greek Sing can take months to prepare for, as it is a choreographed and musical skit that focuses on equality, friendship, sisterhood and brotherhood among Mason’s Greek organizations.

* Editor’s Note — In full disclosure, the author of this story is an affiliated member of the National Panhellenic Conference Greek organization Zeta Tau Alpha Fraternity.