Cultural diffusion has leapt across the Atlantic in 30 small boxes this past week. Gamma Beta Phi, Southeastern’s premier honors and charitable community organization, has just completed their drive to bring the Mardi Gras festivities that Louisiana is so well known for to her sons and daughters in uniform abroad.

“A lot of students come up with these ideas which they think will make great service programs and we send them out state-wide,” said Gamma Beta Phi faculty advisor Jackie Dale Thomas. “But then they came up with this Operation Mardi Gras and they’ve been doing it for a few years now.”

Gamma Beta Phi is an organization which requires its members to complete a set number of community service activities each semester. These activities result in a tally of points which every member must maintain in order to keep their membership. So when the idea of Operation Mardi Gras came along, according to Thomas, the organization jumped to action.

Members filled boxes with Mardi Gras sundries such as beads, Mardi Gras colored footballs, moon pies, and a host of other items to be sent to our soldiers overseas.

But Thomas and Gamma Beta Phi did not stop there. Looking for a way to more actively engage the community, Gamma Beta Phi enlisted the help of the Lab School Beta Club. As the two organizations shared a founding member, they were in the perfect position to act in unison. Beta Club members drafted hand-made cards which thanked and celebrated the troops for their service, commitment and sacrifice. Naturally, this was done in the all-present theme of Mardi Gras.

“You remember when you were a little kid and you made those construction paper cards,” said Thomas. “Well we stuck those in each of the boxes that we were able to send.”

Once the personalized cards were inserted into the boxes, the packages were sent to primarily Louisianan servicemen in Iraq and Afghanistan. Although Thomas noted that the primary focus of this drive was Louisiana residents, she had little doubt that the soldiers would share the festivities with friends who might have never heard of the festival.

According to Thomas, Gamma Bet Phi is certain that they were successful in bringing a little slice of Louisiana to the deserts of the Middle East and the mountains of Persia.

For more information on Southeastern’s Gamma Beta Phi Organization, students may contact the group at 985-549-2233, e-mail them at [email protected] or simply drop by their office at SLU 11670.