Members of more than 15 University sororities and fraternities packed the EMU ballroom Monday night during the annual Anchor Splash philanthropy project put on by the Delta Gamma sorority.
Anchor Splash is Delta Gamma’s primary philanthropy project. The University of Miami-Florida chapter started the tradition 40 years ago.
Proceeds from Anchor Splash fundraising go to the Delta Gamma Foundation’s Service for Sight and the Oregon School for the Blind in Salem.
“Here at the UO, Anchor Splash is a series of small events accumulating in a talent show,” explains Anchor Splash co-director and University undergraduate Nicole Wasowski. “It involves all fraternities and sororities here, which makes it the biggest philanthropy participation-wise on campus.”
Anchor Splash is composed of four days of contests and competitions within the greek community that began last Wednesday. Last week’s events included the most-beautiful-eyes contest, a soup-can label fundraiser and this year’s newest inclusion, Dunk-a-DG, which gave people the opportunity to drop a Delta Gamma into an icy dunk-tank. Monday night concluded the Anchor Splash activities with a skit, music and dance competition.
With more than 500 people in attendance Monday night, sororities and fraternities crammed together on the ballroom floor as they watched performances including a decade-dance medley courtesy of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority, an a cappella performance from the Delta Sigma Phi fraternity and a Zoolander reenactment by the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.
“We’ve actually had a lot better turnout this year than in past years – less dropouts, which is good,” Wasowski said.
Each year, the best fraternity and sorority win awards for their overall involvement in the four-day event. This year’s Mr. Anchor Splash went to Sigma Phi Epsilon for its live band performance of Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal” that accompanied a well-received choreographed dance, ousting last year’s winner, Sigma Chi. Back-to-back Ms. Anchor Splash winners, Pi Beta Phi, managed another victory with an ’80s pop-style medley dance.
Pi Beta Phi sophomore Sara Strite said her sorority had a lot of involvement in the activities and they used about two weeks putting the dance together.
“It was so cool winning as a freshman and then winning again as a sophomore,” Strite said.
Wasowski estimated the event brought in roughly $7,000 in revenue, more than double that of last year. Almost half of the proceeds will be donated to the Oregon School for the Blind.
Founded in 1873, the Oregon School for the Blind is Oregon’s only school for the visually impaired, and acts as both a school – with students ranging from 10 to 21 years old – and as a dormitory for students whose homes are too far to commute during the week.
Childcare worker Sean Southworth represented the OSB at Anchor Splash on Monday night, applauding Delta Gamma’s philanthropy.
“We’ve participated with Delta Gamma for a number of years, now – longer than I’ve been at the school. A lot of the proceeds go to fund the summer school program,” Southworth said. “We are greatly indebted to Delta Gamma.”
“We go to visit the school several times a term,” Wasowski added. “I know people are going down this week to help out with their prom. It’s nice to have a cause where you can directly see it go towards something.”
During the 2004-05 school year, the Delta Gamma’s UO chapter ranked seventh among the 144 university chapters across the nation in community service that aided the blind and visually impaired.