Sigma Nu and Sigma Alpha Iota Host Fundraiser for Adams County Food Bank
The Spark Notes perform for Can Jam at Sigma Nu (Photo Thea Toocheck/The Gettysburgian)
By Thea Toocheck, Staff Writer
On Saturday, Sigma Nu and Sigma Alpha Iota co-hosted Can Jam, a live music fundraiser raising money for the Adams County Food Bank.
Held in the backyard of the Sigma Nu fraternity house, three of the campus’s student musical groups performed at the event: Drop The Octave, The Spark Notes, and Opposite Reflection. Members of both fraternities strolled through the yard in tie-dye shirts, and Aidan Wright ‘20 seemed pleased with the turnout.
“This is our first annual can jam; it’s a canned food item fundraiser as well as jam-sesh,” Wright explained. As the new Philanthropy Chair for Sigma Nu, he decided at the beginning of the semester that he wanted to throw a philanthropic event as the first step in increasing the fraternity’s campus community engagement. He hopes to make Can Jam an annual event and that the performers will be able to return next year.
Wright approached friend and classmate Melanie Greenberg ‘20 with the idea for the event earlier in the year. Greenberg is Sigma Alpha Iota’s Fundraising and Philanthropy Chair and Treasurer, and the pair knew early on that they wanted to support the food bank and planned the event around this idea. Rose Martus ‘18 explained that the two fraternities have partnered on events in the past, citing the example that they go caroling together on campus in the winter.
Martus, introducing Sigma Alpha Iota, the all-women music fraternity on campus, said that the fraternity would like to “step up our game with our philanthropies.” Greenberg expressed a desire for the group to “get the name out” on campus; despite having been on campus for fifty years, the chapter is fairly small, most likely, she admitted, because it is not a social fraternity and spends a lot of time in the Conservatory.
Olivia Chatowsky ‘21 enjoyed the event; she attended because she had been looking for something fun to do and loved that the event was for charity. Julia Chin ‘21 is a member of The Spark Notes and was happy to perform. “I don’t frequent the frats,” she said with a smile, “but when I do, it’s for a worthy cause.”
