Delta Upsilon brothers take kids to a show

It's a tough job to get 30 active and restless first-graders to remain quiet and pay attention in a theater while a show is going on. Fortunately, for Lea Elementary School first-grade teacher Judy Hollaender, she had some help on Friday. Brothers from the Delta Upsilon fraternity accompanied Hollaender's class to a show at the Harold Prince Theater in the Annenberg Center last Friday. Before the show, The Lost Sound, about 10 DU brothers went to the school to pick up the class and brought them back to their fraternity house to play some games and have some lunch, said Piyush Agerwal, DU's philanthropy chairperson. The first-graders said they loved being at the house. "We played pool and told Halloween stories," said an excited Calvin Jamison. While at the show, the DU brothers helped Hollaender by making sure everyone stayed in their seats. And when nature called for the boys in the class, the brothers were there to escort them to the restroom. One brother, apparently intent on adding a new twist to the story of Pinocchio, warned one boy about the dangers of not telling the truth. "I have to go to the bathroom," Yasiym Miller claimed. "You better not be lying," said Wharton senior Rob Gillam. "Your nose turns purple if you lie." "Really?" replied an astonished Miller. Agerwal said the purpose of the trip was for brothers to teach the youngsters about more than the standard reading, writing and arithmetic they learn every day in the classroom. The fraternity also took Hollaender's class to the Philadelphia Zoo last semester. But the fraternity does much more than just take the class out on field trips. Hollaender said brothers come to Lea three times a week to tutor students and tell them stories. And this year after the brothers noticed the poor condition of the school's playground, they decided to do something about it. "Everything was faded. You couldn't tell where the jump rope lines and hopscotch or basketball court were," Agerwal said. "So we painted it," he said. Hollaender said the DU brothers are invaluable to her. "I wouldn't be able to do all this on my own," she said. She said the relationship between the brothers and her students is "incredible" and the impact of it lasts beyond the first grade. "The kids I've had five years ago?ask them the best thing they did in first-grade and they'll say 'the brothers'," Hollaender said.