Sorority hosts spaghetti dinner

Alpha Chi Omega's first Spaghetti Dinner Sunday night featured extra helpings of good food, good music -- and good intentions. The event, which was co-sponsored by the Spaghetti Warehouse Restaurant, was the sorority's first charity fund-raising campaign of the fall semester. All proceeds were to benefit the Women Against Domestic Violence organization. The sorority will host another charity event during the spring semester and plans to hold the Spaghetti Dinner annually. More than 400 students were in attendance, many of whom were members of other fraternities and sororities on campus. Alpha Chi Omega sisters served beverages, spaghetti and bread to the guests. So many people showed up that there was actually a slight shortage of food. Tables and chairs filled up quickly, but students didn't seem to mind standing up or sitting on the floor while eating and listening to the music of several University performing arts groups, including Off the Beat, Penn Six-5000, The Inspiration, The Mask and Wig Band and Penn Dance. In prior years, the sorority sold various gift items on Locust Walk but it never held a dinner as a charity event. "This is the first time our house has ever sponsored an event like this. We never expected such a large turnout," said College junior and Alpha Chi Omega sister Dana Shriberg, one of the dinner's principal organizers. Shriberg also said she was pleased the dinner turned out so well and that people were able to acquaint themselves with the performing arts groups on campus. The idea of having a spaghetti dinner was borrowed from another chapter of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority. The sisters at the University aimed to sponsor a successful charity event that would encompass the University's performing arts groups with a dinner to bring students together. College sophomore and Alpha Chi Omega sister Sharon Weinzimer was excited to see so many people at the dinner.