Thursday, November 1, 2001

Greek chapters to raise $25,000 for Rise School scholarship
Efforts reflect first joint philanthropy project for groups
By Sam Eaton
Staff Reporter

All 20 chapters of the Interfraternity and Pan Hellenic councils will donate at least $1,000 each toward a $25,000 scholarship endowment for the Rise School, with IFC and Pan Hellenic providing the remainder, said IFC President Kyle Gore.

IFC and Pan Hellenic passed the measure three weeks ago to provide scholarship money for students attending the early childhood educational center. A TCU-run institution, Rise caters to children 16 months to 6 years old with Down’s Syndrome.

Erin Munger/PHOTO EDITOR A Rise School student plays on the playground in September. TCU greek organizations are raising money for an endowment scholarship for the school.

Gore said $25,000 was the minimum amount of money required to start an endowed scholarship through TCU’s advancement office, and $1,000seemed like a logical amount for each of the 20 chapters to raise. Gore said the event was a first for the Greek community.

“This is the first time we’ve raised this amount of money all together,” he said. “This is the first time that all 20 chapters have gotten together to benefit something like this.”

Phi Kappa Phi President Danny Mogolov said the goal of the school is to give children the developmental skills and educational opportunities necessary to prepare them to enter a regular kindergarten with kids their own age.

The Pi Kappa Phi fraternity frequently volunteers to work with the Rise School, but Mogolov said the Greek community wanted to be a part of a philanthropy event where all chapters could be represented.

“Several people in the Greek community wanted to put together an all-Greek philanthropy event and make it something that was meaningful to TCU and to the community,” Mogolov said. “It’s important for Greeks to get together and do something for the community.”

Zeta Tau Alpha President Samantha Randklev said the scholarship was a great way to give children better opportunities to succeed.

“It’s about $8,000 to send a child to the Rise School, which is very expensive,” Randklev said. “Some chapters are so big that if each person donated $10, that would be about $1,000. So if you could give up going out to dinner one night a week, you could help put a kid through school.”

Mogolov said he introduced the idea for the joint effort philanthropy event during September and was thrilled at the positive response he received.

“I was almost dumfounded with the support,” Mogolov said.

Gore said IFC and Pan Hellenic hope to have all the funds raised by Dec. 4.

The officers agreed to pursue the endowment past their terms in office until all the funds have been raised, he said.

Sam Eaton
s.m.eaton@student.tcu.edu