IU’s Panhellenic Association is in the midst of fundraising for what vice president of community involvement Sydney Twiggs said will be the biggest philanthropic project PHA has ever done.
The project, which will build a school in rural Nicaragua, is a partnership between PHA and Circle of Sisterhood.
Circle of Sisterhood is an organization that encourages sorority women across the country to make a difference in the lives of women and girls around the world.
Twiggs said she wanted to partner with Circle of Sisterhood to raise awareness for a good cause and to get sorority women to come together and work with women from other chapters.
“My goal was to make Circle of Sisterhood a widespread cause and a well-known thing on campus,” Twiggs said.
Director of service Maddi Lasson said they have raised $21,000 so far, and in order to build the school, they need to raise $40,000 by Jan. 15. The new school will be fully funded by the money PHA raises.
Lasson said Circle of Sisterhood is the organization PHA is fundraising for and through, but Circle of Sisterhood is partnering with buildOn to construct the school.
BuildOn is a nonprofit that constructs schools in rural villages with the goal of empowering and mobilizing the community members.
Twiggs said the organization is important because it goes into the communities it serves to find out what real needs are.
“We want to make sure what we’re doing in the country is actually useful,” Twiggs said.
The $40,000 raised by PHA will be used partly to fund the building of the school and partly to sustain it for years to come, Lasson said.
Lasson said there is a committee working on fundraising with representatives from each of the 23 chapters, and each chapter has been given the resources to devise a fundraising plan that works best for them.
“All of the Panhellenic women are working together to accomplish this,” Lasson said. “The way it’s been able to bring everyone together has surprised even us.”
Twiggs said there are 14 spots for sorority women who want to go to Nicaragua to help build the school, and they will be chosen based on good standing with their chapter and involvement in fundraising for the project thus far.
The women who are selected will have a preparation class through Student Life and Learning to help them learn more about service learning and find out how to get the most out of their experience, Twiggs said.
“Our overall goal would just be to really unite the IU Panhellenic community,” Twiggs said. “We are women who have so much and are so fortunate, so we want to give back to women who may not be as fortunate.”
