Archive for “Letters”
Thank You for Supporting Push America
Dear Brothers,
On behalf of Push America, I would like to thank you for your generous gifts in 2009. Our success this year can be attributed directly to your generosity. Your support is very important to us, and the best way we can demonstrate this to you is by being good stewards of your funds. For example, in 2009, 86.6 percent of the funds raised directly served the mission of Push America, as calculated in our IRS Form 990.
While this number is very important, what really drives our mission is how the people we serve are impacted. You can check out some of our news stories or view Push America’s year in pictures to get a sense of what your donation means to so many people.
We hope you will continue to support Push America as we move closer to reaching the strategic vision of doubling the number of opportunities afforded for our college men and the amount of grants awarded to programs that serve people with disabilities.
Thank you for your most generous support, and I wish all the best in 2010.
With warm regards,
Chad Coltrane
Chief Executive Officer, Push America
P.S. There are many other additional ways to support Push America, such as a monthly gift or an auction on Ebay. Learn more about supporting Push America.
Valentine’s Day, from Brother Anderson
Brothers,
Valentine’s Day is fast approaching and I am looking for your help. In the past our wonderful fraternity has swooned the sororities of UMass on valentine’s day. This is a tradition I would like to bring back to Theta Mu. Not only would it help strengthen our bonds with others in the Greek System, but it is a great way to stand out as gentlemen. I am starting the fairly tedious process of arranging some music and because this requires some planning to pull off, I was hoping to get an idea of who would be interested in this. Of course this is not any type of mandatory event, just some fun to bring brothers together. If you’re interested please send me an email with the following information for music purposes:
- Name
- Any prior music experience? Yes or No
- If yes, what kind of musical part best suits you?
- Can you read sheet music? Yes or No
- Any free time during the week
- Any questions or concerns
This is just to help me. You would not need any experience with this type of event to be a part of it. This is for fun, not for competition, so all voices are welcome!
Lets do something different,
Billy Anderson
UMass Supports Haiti
Welcome back for the Spring semester! I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year’s celebration and I look forward to seeing all of you soon. As you know, the beginning of a new semester is a big time for PiKapp, it is the beginning of a new season of recruiting, a season when we have traditionally recruited many of our best brothers!
This first week, I hope to see many of you at the recruitment table helping to find the best a brightest guys on campus to join our fraternity. I also hope to see you, because Brother Slocum and myself have been working on an awareness project for the recovery efforts in Haiti. Vice Archon Bliss gave us the green light to use some of our tabling space to set up the “UMass supports Haiti” project. This will consist of a tally board where anyone who has texted “Haiti” to 90999 can come and show us their text message and we will add $10 to our school total. The idea is that we will see how generous UMass students have been in giving money to the Red Cross and supporting Haiti.
I think it will be a great project, and please contact me if you are interested in advertising outside of the table (i.e. fliers, classroom announcements, visiting RSO/Greek meetings). Chops will be available at the table, and I ask that if you are there that you help to hand them out to as many people as possible.
Most importantly, please join the Facebook Group “Have you texted ‘Haiti’ to 90999?” and invite all of your UMass friends. I think I have invited all the PiKapps, so you should have an invite. If not, the link is on my facebook page.
Thank you so much for your help, and I look forward to the start of a great semester!
Love you all,
Sloan
Push America’s Year-in-Review 2009
Happy Holidays from Push America! We hope that you have a chance to spend some quality time with your family and an opportunity to relax before the new year begins.
It’s hard to fathom that the year is almost behind us already but as we move into 2010, we must take a moment to reflect upon 2009. Over 70 million people across the country witnessed the impact that Push America had throughout the year. Click on the image below and you’ll get a glimpse of how Push America made a difference for people with disabilities.
There are so many people to thank for the support they continue to give year after year. Whether it is college students, corporate sponsors, volunteers, alumni of Pi Kappa Phi, parents, businesses, foundations, etc., countless individuals continue to allow Push America to impact lives. Thank you for playing a part and I hope you will continue to support Push America in 2010 and beyond.
With my deepest gratitude,
Chad Coltrane
Chief Executive Officer, Push America
Letter to Our Alumni
Alumni,
As an update, I wanted to touch base with you all. We had our A Capella Concert yesterday. It was a great success, raising more than $1000! The groups were thoroughly pleased with our effort and many of them said they’d be willing to perform next year.
A couple of events are coming up. As you all know, initiation for the Eta class is the first week of December. All those that are planning on coming should email Mike Pearson or myself. Initiation is December 4th. Oral boards are planned for 7PM in their usual location.
Following initiation will be the Winter Ball, Saturday, December 5th. In conjunction with the formal, there will be a focus on celebrating Founders day. It is being held in the 10th floor of the Campus Center. The event will begin at 7PM. The alumni cost will be $30. Food selection choices are still being made. Expect an email later this week detailing the food from either Mike DiPietro or myself.
Again, please let me know if you’ll be attending Winter Ball within a week. More information will be coming your way.
Joshua Jost
Historian
Journey of Hope Letters: Mike Keough
Hello All,
I just wanted to write to give you an update on my cross country ride so far. We left from Seattle what felt like months ago and have been on the road 26 days having pedaled through Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and now Colorado. We are staying in a hotel (!) for two nights here in Denver – a welcome change from gym floors. I am enjoying cycling much more than I thought I would, which is a plus, considering how much we do of it. Just last week we rode 128 miles Casper, WY to Wheatland, WY in one day! My injuries have been mild and include a pair of chronically stiff knees, and some sun blisters which I I got crossing the Wyoming desert – did you know Wyoming had a desert? I didn’t. We have seen some amazing sights – Yellowstone at dawn (and at 32 degrees) and the Tetons have been my favorites.
We have also been privileged to have the opportunity to promote disability awareness in the communities we visit by putting on Kids on the Block puppet shows and making friendship visits with organizations who provide opportunities to community members with disabilities. Just last night we rode with Special Olympics cyclists in an event called Pedal for Pennies. I partnered with Adela, a local cyclist, to claim the women’s record in the event – 6 laps around the lake! After the feast of a dinner we had (my stomach has also expanded to 5 times its normal size) we cleared the tables out of the lake-side pavilion for a dance, where our team serenaded the female participants with hits by the Backstreet Boys and the Jonas Brothers.
I feel privileged to to have the opportunity to participate in the Journey of Hope, and thank you for your continued support. I hope you are enjoying your summer, especially if you are enduring monsoon season in MA.
All the best,
Mike Keough
To keep tabs on the team check out their daily journal entries or check out their photos from the road on Flickr.
Letter from our Chapter President
Firstly, thank you for visiting the Theta Mu Chapter web site. It is my sincerest hope that you have or will find all of the information you have sought in visiting.
Our fraternity was colonized over four years ago in the fall of 2005. This chapter was founded in order to give men an opportunity to challenge themselves so that they can become better students, leaders, citizens, and individuals.
We have done our best to support this mission and our brothers in a variety of ways.
As an organization, we place a very high value on community service by encouraging men to participate in programs and events associated with our disabilities awareness philanthropy, Push America. Men have helped build wheel chair ramps for individuals in the surrounding communities and continue to participate in the Journey of Hope alongside other Pi Kappa Phi brothers from across the country, which consists of a summer-long bike ride from the West Coast to the steps of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
In addition to community service, we also believe that leadership experience is necessary in ensuring the overall growth, development, and well-roundedness of individual brothers. That is why we also do our best to create leadership opportunities inside the fraternity and make them aware of external opportunities so men can test their own personal limitations. Likewise, we consistently reinforce the utmost importance of education and academics as an essential part of leading a successful and meaningful life by celebrating academic accomplishments and providing resources to improve academic performance.
Lastly, we also do our best to provide unique socializing opportunities so men can broaden their social network in order to advance their personal goals and find enjoyment away from the rigors of academia and everyday life. Such opportunities range from harnessing our alumni base to get men post-undergraduate internships and jobs and connecting with faculty and administrators to playing paintball, attending unforgettable formals, connecting with other Greeks, and using the Chapter budget to plan laid back events that bring an even stronger sense of brotherhood into our fraternity.
Once again, thank you for visiting the Theta Mu Chapter web page. If you have any questions whatsoever, please feel free to contact me at your own convenience and I will be more than happy to assist you.
Excellence is a Choice!
Robert Petrie Corriveau
President of the Theta Mu Chapter of Pi Kappa Phi