Music could be heard all over west campus on Saturday as the Zeta Beta Tau colony hosted its second annual Freedom Festival charity concert at its chapter house on South 39th Street.
The festival, which raised $5,750 for the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation and the Greek Alumni Foundation, featured three bands and a variety of local and corporate sponsors who donated food and other items for the event.
"A hundred percent of our proceeds are directly going to charity, and that's something that means a lot to us," Wharton senior Michelan Chiaramonte said. "We have a brother directly related to this charity, so we want to raise as much as possible."
Beginning at 6 p.m., the concert drew a large attendance from groups of students who paid the $9 entrance fee to sample some of the activities inside.
Although the house is on colony status -- the University and ZBT's national office suspended the Penn chapter's charter for a year in September for violating alcohol policy last spring -- the members managed to draw large crowds.
"This was definitely one of our biggest fundraisers we've had in a while," Wharton senior and ZBT President Jon Schottenstein said. "The sponsors we brought in gave their full support."
Corporate sponsors included Pepsi, Sports Illustrated on Campus and American Eagle Outfitters.
While Pepsi donated over 900 free sodas, Sports Illustrated and American Eagle promoted prize items for a $1 raffle that was held during the concert.
Among the dozens of prizes raffled off were two pairs of Knicks tickets and a Philadelphia Flyers jersey donated by Comcast Sports.
"Some of our brothers contacted large companies and got them to donate a huge amount," College junior and ZBT brother Justin Pines said, adding that the raffle was successful.
The main feature of the festival, however, was the music. A large stage set up downstairs featured three bands -- Grimace, Zox and Lotus.
"The bands gave an amazing performance, and we drew a great attendance to support them," Schottenstein said. "People kept coming in and out as the next band got ready to play."
Also contributing were local retailer Greek Lady and student-run Insomnia Cookies, which donated all their profits made at the concert to the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation.
While Insomnia Cookies were sold in an upstairs lounge inside the house, Greek Lady set up a stand outside to attract customers entering and leaving the concert.
ZBT Vice President and College junior Brian Isen credits the teamwork of all of the brothers in making the event possible.
"About two months ago, we were in a house meeting, and we decided we wanted to do a charity event," Isen said. "We contacted all the sponsors one at a time, and we got an enormous response."
"We would like to do this forever -- hopefully we can raise even more money next time," Isen added.
