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Community Service |
“Without community service, we would not have a strong quality of life. It's important to the person who serves as well as the recipient. It's the way in which we ourselves grow and develop."
-Dr. Dorothy Height
 | | Alumni Brother Zach Grunow and Brother John Wells help with various activities at Reelfoot Lake Ministries. |
Community service is a staple of our Balanced Man development program. Community involvement gives us an opportunity to meet many different types of people and exposes us to many new experiences. Most of the work our chapter does is service learning, hands-on community service that involves direct contact and personal effort in meeting the needs of the community in which we are all part of while learning from others in the process. Combined with personal reflection and discussion in each Challenge (see Balanced Man Program), service learning teaches us much about ourselves and our community.
TN Zeta is involved in a wide array of community activities. In terms of charity, we often work together with both YouthAIDS, Sigma Phi Epsilon’s national philanthropy, and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. To assist YouthAIDs, we held a Band Benefit in the fall of 2005 at our chapter house. All proceeds from that event were donated to the YouthAIDS charity fund, and, as a result, TN Zeta ranked amongst the top eight SigEp chapters in the nation for donations. We also raise money for YouthAIDS by participating in the Panhellenic annual Allsing competition in which various campus organizations contend with each other to raise money for their respected philanthropies.
 | | University President Fred Zuker poses with Brother-President Matt Altobell at TN Zeta's 2005 Band Benefit. |
In the spring of 2005, we sponsored and organized a golf tournament to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, raising well over $3000. Our volunteer work covers a wide variety of organizations in the Jackson area in just the past couple of years. We have assisted Reelfoot Rural Ministries in building fences, planting flowerbeds, and moving old playground equipment. At various times during the year, SigEps will volunteer as servers at the RIFA soup kitchen. During national Dr. Seuss week, Arlington Elementary School asked the brothers of TN Zeta to read to children of all ages many of Brother Seuss's stories. SigEps have also helped in the execution and running of the Jackson-Madison County Senior Olympics held in Spring 2006.
The Carl Perkins Center Exchange Club for the Prevention of Child Abuse holds an annual charity auction and dinner, and we are more than happy to help with either the set up or take down of the auction or as servers for the dinner. The Center has started working with us so that we can begin to work with the children the Center is helping, and several of our brothers have gone through a rigorous training program in order to do so.
 | | TN Zeta won first place in the Panhellenic Charity All-Sing event, raising money for YouthAIDS. |
When Hurricane Katrina occurred, Jackson also felt the shock of its aftermath, and we worked with the American Red Cross to organize relief supplies and register people who had lost their homes in the hurricane. In conjunction with Old Hickory Mall, we were able to organize a voter registration campaign back in 2004; successfully registering about 150 people just in time for the presidential election.
Service learning and other aspects of community involvement are critical to developing a fine leader. By taking part in such activities, we strive to become balanced individuals, developing empathy for our neighbors and a dedication to being a responsible citizen for the rest of our lives.
For more information on SigEp TN Zeta's philanthropic work, feel free to contact our Vice President of Membership Development, Brother Justin Luzader at Jrluzader@gmail.com.
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