Fraternities and sororities across campus are getting ready to put on their letters and show what their chapters are made of.
The Greek community is hosting a carnival, a canned-food drive and a pageant for Greek Week 2011, taking place Oct. 9-14.
All proceeds from the events will be donated to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Lee County.
Stacy Shockley, senior in marketing and member of Zeta Tau Alpha sorority, said the charity work provides a different view of Greek life.
"It gives us a better name so people don't think we just, like, party all the time," said Shockley, director of Greek Week for the Panhellenic Council. "Like, we really do have a great philanthropy that we're supporting. I think it's really important for all of us to, like, come together and work together."
Promoting unity in Auburn's Greek community is one of the main purposes for Greek Week, said Carter Hawkins, junior in international business and member of Theta Chi fraternity.
"It's just kind of to bring all the Greeks together in a setting that they normally wouldn't come together in and all in the name of, like, community service and raising money for kids," Hawkins said.
Hawkins, director of Greek Week for the Interfraternity Council, said all the cookouts and games are designed to bring the clubs together, but ultimately serve the greater purpose of philanthropy.
Hawkins said the planning began early because the organizing team reworked last year's schedule, keeping some events and planning new ones. Meetings with representatives from every sorority and fraternity and local restaurants had to be conducted so schedules would match up.
The job of planning the activities for the Interfraternity Council was turned over to Tyler Adkins, senior in wireless engineering and member of Sigma Pi.
"It's kind of fun to determine what we do and actually make a difference in how it evolves," Adkins said. "Past that, it's been a lot of fun working with everybody from different organizations."
Adkins said he worked with the Panhellenic activities director to prune the schedule and add new material after analyzing feedback he received from other fraternities.
"We just kept an open mind in trying to determine what was going to be the best fit for Greek Week this year," Adkins said.
One of the new events being held this year is "Canstruction," a contest to see which team can design the best structure out of canned goods donated by Kroger. Teams will pay to compete and the food will be donated to the Beat Bama Food Drive, Hawkins said.
Highlights of the week will be the Miss Greek Week pageant Tuesday and the Greek Week carnival Wednesday on the Student Center Greenspace.
The carnival will be open to all students from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and costs $2 to participate. After 3 p.m. children from the Boys & Girls Clubs and any students accompanying children in Project Uplift are welcome to attend the carnival games for free.
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