Last Saturday, the Mu Omega chapter of the Kappa Sigma fraternity celebrated their brotherhood’s National Philanthropy Day by camping out in Downtown Hammond and accepting donations for the Fisher House Foundation.
“I knew this date was close to Homecoming, but we didn’t choose the date,” Greg Crovetto president of Kappa Sigma said. “This is the day that different chapters of Kappa Sigma all across the nation go out into their community and perform some kind of philanthropy.”
The Fisher House program’s main objective is to support America’s military personnel and their families by providing “comfort homes.” The program is specifically tailored for members of the military and their families that are stationed worldwide and must often travel great distances for specialized medical care. The comfort homes, built on the grounds of major military and Veteran Affairs medical centers. These homes enable family members to be close to a loved one during the hospitalization for an unexpected illness, disease or injury.
“It’s really about helping military families,” said Crovetto. “It’s not just about raising money it gives our new members a chance to bond with the actives and other members who can’t always be at the house.”
To raise money for Fisher House, Kappa Sigma traveled to Downtown Hammond and made camp in the parking lot across from Brady’s. They created cardboard villages in order to raise awareness for their cause. They spent the whole night outside. But despite the heat and the dingy cardboard everyone who participated had fun. There was music constantly playing, the grill was going, not to mention there was always something to build. But most of the men could be found walking up and down the streets with cardboard signs asking for what money people could spare.
The people who passed by the cardboard villages and the members of Kappa Sigma had many different reactions. Some would look down when they drove by, others would honk in support and some would even hold up traffic to dig for change to donate. Crovetto called the 24 hour fundraiser a success, which collected over $500 during just the first shift and raised about $1300 in total.