Derby Days raise $5,000 for charity

About 200 people showed up to to honor this year's Derby Days champion team, "It's Miller Time," at an awards ceremony on Saturday night. The ceremony, which featured a pizza dinner, a band and the presentation of a three-foot trophy, wrapped up this year's week long Derby Days fundraiser, sponsored by the Sigma Chi fraternity. The fundraiser is an annual national Sigma Chi tradition to raise money for a given charity through fees to enter competitions, fees for open events and corporate donors and advertising. This year's proceeds will be donated to the Children's Crisis Treatment Center, an organization that provides services for abused Philadelphia youth. "People were so involved in it and so excited to take part," said College junior and Sigma Chi brother Jon Blotner, this year's Derby Daddy, the event's chairman. Although an official count will not take place for another two weeks as donations continue to trickle in, Blotner anticipates that the fraternity will be able to donate $5,000 to CCTC. Last year, the fraternity donated about $2,000. "Each year Derby Days has been bigger," Blotner explained. "But this year was a huge jump." Although Sigma Chi's initial goal was to donate $7,000, Blotner explained that the fraternity advertised an unusually high goal to increase motivation and said that they are still excited with the money they will be able to donate. "We were able to raise so much more money than we thought possible," he said. Throughout last week, the 33 participating teams competed in activities such as a "dress your pledge" competition and a casino night in order to rack up enough points to earn the trophy. With the trophy came a five-course meal prepared by team of Sigma Chi brothers and a dinner for six at Striped Bass -- all presented to "It's Miller Time." "We were happy," College sophomore and "It's Miller Time" member Lauren Wine said. "We were very excited." "We hoped we were going to win," the Kappa Alpha Theta sister added. College sophomore Nicole Eissler, also a member of "It's Miller Time," said that her participation in this year's Derby Days differed from last year's -- intentionally. "We weren't really together and into it [last year]," the Alpha Chi Omega sister said. "And this year we [said] we were going to go to all the competitions and participate in every event." And while the team participated in all events, members did have their favorites. Eissler mentioned Casino Night as her favorite event. "It wasn't like a typical frat party," she said. "It's just something different, the whole casino theme." Blotner also cited the "Dress Your Pledge" competition and the Virginia Coalition concert as favorites among many. He noted that the competition was "the starting off thing, and really set a competitive tone for the teams for the rest of the week." He also added that the humor of the event was a major plus. "It was really funny," he said. Overall, Blotner said the fraternity was very excited by the outcome of this year's fundraiser. "I'd definitely describe it as sort of an event that brought Derby Days to a new level," he said. "Something that's now going to become one of the biggest weeks in the school [year]."

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