Whitewater’s Main St. is home to many businesses, local travelers and students on their way to UW-Whitewater. However, that’s not all Main St. is home to, it is also home to seven UW-W fraternities.
These seven fraternities all coincide under the UW-W Interfraternity Council (IFC), who host the annual Greek Olympics. Jordan Draws is the current student president of the IFC and is the head of the Greek Olympics. The Greek Olympics are a set of competitions that invite all seven fraternities to compete against each other in physical competitions such as corn hole and sand volleyball.
The entry fee into the Greek Olympics is a donation of food cans that will get donated to the Warhawk Pantry and other local pantries nearby. Currently, the IFC has collected 155 cans through the Greek Olympics that will be donated this holiday season.
Austin Rice, a junior finance major at UW-W, a member of Phi Delta Theta, and IFC social chair, expressed the purpose of the Greek Olympics.
“The Greek Olympics are very important because they establish values like leadership, having Greeks create teams and roles while also developing teamwork,” Rice said. “A lot of these values are great for future workplaces and life. Generally, they are great values to have.”
Rice went on to state how he has met a lot of his lifelong and future groomsmen through the Greek Olympics and other similar Greek events.
“The importance of the Greek Olympics is to get all IFC chapters together in the same room all helping a common good. Without the Greek Olympics, we will not be able to not only come together as Greek chapters on campus but also donate food for the community,” said Dylan Freeman, a finance & business management major, member of Lambda Chi Alpha and current Greek Olympics belt holder.
The Greek Olympics strives for competitiveness from the seven fraternities and does so by incorporating a belt to be won.
“Spencer Wiersma and I represented Lambda Chi Alpha and we won the belt this time around by competing in a cornhole tournament sponsored by the new organization on
campus, Bags Club,” Freeman said. “We won the belt by going undefeated against all IFC chapters in a bracket-style competition. The belt to me represents unity. When all chapters come together to compete for the IFC belt, we all grow closer together.”
However, the belt is not just an incentive to get all fraternities to participate; it has a metaphorical meaning now.
“Now it is a symbol for your own chapter’s excellence. Fraternities on campus now look forward to meeting again and competing for the belt during competitions,” Freeman said.
This competitiveness is not only useful for the Greek Olympics but also for the rest of their lives.
“It brings competitiveness which is great because I believe competition drives people to become better versions of themselves, even if it’s all for fun, it brings out that drive and community, people come out and get to know each other and have fun,” Rice said.
Alongside the Greek Olympics, according to Rice UW-W the biggest philanthropy event this year is the food drive. The food drive started about a month ago and goes to the end of the academic year. The goal is for the fraternities to collect as much food as possible. Rice expressed the hope for the future of UW-W sororities joining efforts alongside the fraternities in the food drive and events similar.
The Greek Olympics and the food drive are just two examples of how Greek life strives to give back to not only the UW-W campus but also our local community.
“When going Greek you join a family. A family that helps the community, helps each other grow, and has a great time doing it,” Freeman said.
Beyond just events, each house has a current area of donation each year. For example, Rice’s fraternity Phi Delta Theta likes to give donations to organizations that help Lou Gehrig’s disease.
“We all as a Greek community like to give back to other causes,” Rice said.
