(Photo courtesy of Loretta Sholler)Delta Zeta hopes to raise over $35,000 at the annual Dukeout with pancakes, tug-of-war and football.
The annual Delta Zeta Dukeout events begin Feb. 16 with 18 teams competing to raise money for local and national organizations.
Events include penny wars and a pancake breakfast at Adelphi Commons, and conclude Feb. 21 with a football game and tug-of-war match at Tempe Town Lake. All money raised will go to the Starkey Hearing Foundation, Gallaudet University, Phoenix Children’s Hospital, and The Painted Turtle Camp.
Organizer Courtney Roth said the goal this year is to raise more than $30,744, which is how much they raised during last year's events, and to reach more people in the community.
“This year our goal is $35,000, so we are hoping to raise more awareness than last year by increasing the participation to outside the Greek community,” she said. “We have made it more of a city-wide event this year, and it’s also not being held on campus this year, so we are hoping with it being a more public event we will have better attendance and that we are raising more money for our philanthropies.”
(Photo courtesy of Loretta Sholler)Loretta Sholler, organizer for Delta Zeta Dukeout, said last year $6,000 was raised through penny wars alone.
Each team will have a jug to fill with pennies, and they gain a point for every penny. If other teams put non-penny coins in their jugs, the teams lose points.
“Teams gain points through out the week with penny wars with each penny counting as a point and other coins count against the team,” she said. “Teams will be set up outside of Memorial Union Monday through Thursday trying to fill up their jugs.”
The pancake dinner will be held Monday from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. and is open to anyone who wants to attend for $3 a plate.
“Every plate that someone buys counts as a point for one of the teams and the next day, Saturday, is the actual Dukeout at Tempe Beach Park,” Sholler said.
After the football game and tug-war events on Feb. 21, the winners will be announced and a trophy will be awarded.
Delta Zeta member Jordyn Eid said the main focus for this year's event was to get more organizations involved.
“At the end of the day, we are a community and without having houses on campus, we don’t get to be much of a community a lot of the time and this brings us together,” she said.
Before the week's events start, the Dukeout has already raised $26,000 and Eid said she thinks they will easily surpass the goal of $35,000.
“We were at $26,000 two days ago, and that’s before penny wars and the pancake breakfast and other donations so I think we’ll get closer to $40,000 this year," she said.
Dukeout raises money for different organizations, but it also allows students to experience Greek life and decide if they would like to look into joining a sorority or fraternity, Eid said.
“So many people want to get involved with it, especially with how well we did last year,” she said. “What made me want to join Delta Zeta was Dukeout. I knew of the separation in Greek life but when I went to Dukeout that went away and coming together at the events sets our differences aside, and we just come together as a community.”
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the time of the pancake dinner. This version has been updated with the correct information.
Reach the reporter at jshanco2@asu.edu or on follow @joey_hancock on Twitter.
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