Friendly competition benefits charity

More than a dozen colorful banners lined the Sigma Chi house yesterday, marking the start of the fraternity's Derby Days. Derby Days -- an annual philanthropic event run by Sigma Chi -- involves teams of Penn women competing in various games and contests to raise money for the Children's Crisis Treatment Center, a local charity that benefits abused children. This is the third year in a row that Sigma Chi has sponsored Derby Days, although the event has been a tradition among Sigma Chi chapters nationwide since the 1930s. This year, there are 30 teams and 285 women participating in the events, up from last year's 240. The contests will be held until Saturday and the winners will be announced Saturday at midnight. Although participation in Derby Days was traditionally limited to sorority sisters, when Sigma Chi revived the event in 1998, the brothers opened up the competition to all women on campus. "The events are not just for Greeks," Sigma Chi brother and Derby Days Chairman Dave Pitluck said. "We try to integrate the whole campus." The banner contest kicked off the week's events. The goal was for each team to be as creative as possible in designing a banner with its team name, while making the campus aware of the Children's Crisis Center. Outside of the Locust Walk house, one team painted on its team name, "Ole Derby Bastard," while another used graham crackers and marshmallows to spell out its name, "Smores." Derby Days will continue today with a skit contest, in which each team must dress up a Sigma Chi pledge and write a skit for him to perform. In past years, teams have dressed brothers as cheerleaders, ducks and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. "That's the event that really gets people into [Derby Days]," said Pitluck, a College junior. On Thursday, Sigma Chi will sponsor a concert by the Vermont-based band Dispatch and the fraternity will hold a casino party on Saturday. All proceeds will go to the treatment center. In 1994, the Panhellenic Council chose to boycott Derby Days on the grounds that the event was sexist. The women were upset that they seemed to be doing all the work while the fraternity brothers received recognition. But Pitluck, pointing to the fact that all of the brothers who were around in 1994 have graduated, said Derby Days is now a "completely different kind of event." This year, many sorority sisters are enthusiastic about participating in Derby Days. "It's fun for everyone and it's for a good cause," Wharton senior Stephanie Romeika said. "Plus, I'm in [Kappa Alpha] Theta, so it's an especially important cause for us to support because the money is being given on behalf of Emily Roberts." Roberts was a College junior and Theta sister who was killed in a car accident in July 1998.

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