It is sometimes easy for college students to become isolated in their campus and forget about the many neighborhoods which surround them. With schoolwork, extracurricular activities, and many more responsibilities each college student takes, it’s sometimes easy to forget to give back to the community. This, however, does not seem to be the case here at Wabash.
This past Saturday the Wabash Alpha Pi Chapter of the Kappa Sigma fraternity took part in helping its neighbors through the Habitat for Humanity organization. The effort was mostly conducted by the Kappa Sigma pledge class, but some of the active brothers in the chapter lent a helping hand and served as leaders for the individual group projects.
The students woke up Saturday morning around 8:30 a.m. and made their way to a Habitat house located on the corner of Jennison Street and Russell Avenue. They worked until 12:00 p.m., at which time a local church group prepared lunch for the hungry workers. Lunch was followed by straight work until around 1:30 p.m.
"We did several things," Craig Wildey, a pledge at Kappa Sigma, said. "We did siding on both sides of the house and the center sidewalk up to the front porch. We also went in and cleaned up inside the house."
The brothers and pledges of Kappa Sigma take community service very seriously and believe it to be critical in the formation of a true Kappa Sigma. According to Ahson Ali, Philanthropy Chair for Kappa Sigma, "we’re not just giving meaninglessly; we’re helping someone in the community who truly needs our help."
Aside from the benefits to the family being helped, those who took part in the project also gained something for themselves.
"I got a real sense of community spirit," Wildey said. "This experience helps draw people together and allows us to meet the people of Crawfordsville. I even met a cancer survivor."
When asked about how this experience drew the pledge class together, Jaime Cantú, president of the Kappa Sigma pledge class, was glad to answer.
"We have to work together to accomplish most of the tasks." He believed that this project was a good experience for the class as a whole and served to strengthen and build the ties of brotherhood necessary for any effective fraternity.