Donna Martino's List: Creative Nonfiction Final Project

• Sigma Chi fraternity beat their previous record by earning a total $167,000 at the end the “Derby Days” competition.
• Sigma Chi raised $95,000 last year
• Sororities Phi Sigma Sigma and Sigma Delta Tau were crowned the overall winners
• • Figure out other charity organizations these sororities are involved in.
• Sigma Chi donates the money they raise to Children’s Miracle Network, an organization that provides funding for children’s hospitals, as well as organizations the participating sororities support
• penny-collecting contest known as “penny wars” and the lip-synching contest
• • Why?  What is it that makes people want to practice this long for this event?
• “Everyone practices fanatically for months and months,”
• Each sorority elected their own “diva” and paired them with a “captain” from Sigma Chi
• We have a roster of all the brothers and each diva picks a captain. It’s like fantasy football
• “We had a girl from the Children’s Miracle Network come in — one of the girls who is actually a beneficiary of all the money we raised,” he said.
• “The coolest thing about it was that the other sororities were cheering for each other during their lip syncing performances. The spirit was off the hook.”

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• Prior to its inception, a volunteer program raised approximately $2 million per year.
• 400,000 solicitations a year to raise support for Rutgers colleges
• 2001, we received the silver medal for Leadership in Educational Fundraising by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. In 2002, we became the highest revenue-generating university phone program in the nation.
• a division of the Department of Annual Giving at the Rutgers University Foundation

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• “The main objective of Derby Days is to raise as much money as possible for the Children’s Miracle Network and some of the other philanthropies the sororities who participate are dedicated to,”
• “Half of the money goes to the Children’s Miracle Network, which is Sigma Chi’s philanthropy,” Shah said. “The other half gets divided between the seven sororities.”
• compete against one another
• The sororities that will participate with Sigma Chi are Alpha Chi Omega, Delta Gamma, Gamma Phi Beta, Phi Sigma Sigma, Sigma Delta Tau, Sigma Kappa and Zeta Tau Alpha, Shah said.
• Some of the events will include Penny Wars, a brotherhood auction and a lip sync dance competition.
• It also brings the chapter together toward a common goal, she said.
• “It’s important for people to support Derby Days because all the money raised goes toward local camps and hospitals in our community,” said Curtin, a School of Arts and Sciences junior.

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• • These people, many of which had their own personal reasons/situations to kill themselves, however, this lack of individualized identity makes them posterchildren, making them no longer special, while the organization claims that they do.
• Justin Aaberg. Billy Lucas. Cody Barker. Asher Brown. Seth Walsh. Raymond Chase. Tyler Clementi. They were tragic examples of youth who could not believe that it does actually get better.
• • Straight POC
• • Straight white woman
• • Straight white woman
• he It Gets Better Project was created to show young LGBT people the levels of happiness, potential, and positivity their lives will reach –
• President Barack Obama
• Hillary Clinton
• Nancy Pelosi,
• • Gay white man
• • Straight white woman.  Has made many speeches in relation to her gay brother and being an ally
• • Straight white man.
• • Straight white man
• Matthew Morrison
• Adam Lambert
• Colin Farrell
• Anne Hathaway
• • What about the resources for teens that are presently going through their teenage years?
• • Straight white woman
• • Straight white man.
• • Gay white man.
• • Lesbian white woman.
• • Straight white man.
• • Straight white woman
• if they can just get through their teen years.
• Tim Gunn
• Ellen DeGeneres
• Joe Jonas
• Sarah Silverman
• Joel Madden
• Ke$ha
• • Gay white woman.
• Suze Orman
• It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying, and Creating a Life Worth Living is on-sale wherever books are sold

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• Trevor Project
• 866-4-U-TREVOR (866-488-7386)
• • Database is a nifty component, though.

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• Sigma Chi Iota Psi was installed here on "The Banks" on September 23, 1991.
• Our mission is to develop values-based leaders committed to the betterment of character, campus and community
• The goal of becoming a Sigma Chi chapter was set, and these men gave everything they had.
• Of course no account of their charity work would be complete without mention of the first annual Derby Days which raised over $11,000 for the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the Cleo Wallace Center for Kids.

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• Derby Days began in the spring of 1933
• Alpha Beta Sigma Chis sponsored an event composed of a series of humorous skits
• instead of presenting skits, the event was planned around an all-day track and field competition between the pledge classes of the nine sororities
• The brothers took the idea back to their campus and named their production "Sigma Chi Derby," which seems to have stuck. 
• As of 2010, Sigma Chi Derby Days has raised approximately $6 million for the Children's Miracle Network charities

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• Sigma Chi Fraternity has supported Children's Miracle Network Hospitals as its national philanthropy since 1993
• raise over $6.5 million
• Children's Miracle Network Hospitals raises funds for 170 children's hospitals across North America
• onation is given it stays in the community
• Children's Miracle Network Hospitals has raised more than $4 billion, most of it $1 at a time

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• Students Against Sweatshops
• activism against the backdrop of neoliberalism
• using one's time wisely resonates with students

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• Hitting the favorite button on the first episode of “Mad Men” is a remarkably different gesture than expressing digital solidarity with kidnapped children in Africa
• digiterati
• I have to admit I’m starting to experience a kind of “favoriting” fatigue — meaning that the digital causes of the day or week are all starting to blend together.
• “Sometimes, it may be as simple as trying to impress their online friends, and once you have fashioned that identity, there is very little reason to actually do anything else.”
• • This ability to "weigh in", particularly on Twitter, is a simple retweet or copy-paste job, which is pretty easy compared to having to make speeches to people and talking directly to the MPAA
• Celebrities and politicians, everyone from Drew Brees to Justin Bieber, have weighed in, as have more than 460,000 people who’ve signed an online petition demanding that the rating be changed.
• The petition was started by a teenager, Katy Butler, who was bullied for being a lesbian, and has blown up huge on Twitter and elsewhere.

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