The Lambda Chi Alpha MSU chapter will hold its annual fundraiser, Watermelon Fest, Wednesday and Thursday. The competition, previously open to only freshmen sorority members, will now be open to all sorority members due to Panhellenic Council concerns.
Other changes to Watermelon Fest include the omission of Spirit Night and the set of relay games.
The Lambda Chi chapter at Millsaps College held the first Watermelon Fest in 1993 as a way to help donate to their philanthropy, the North American Food Drive.
The fraternity challenges individual sororities to collect canned food over time.
Philip Vanderlest, Lambda Chi vice president and this year’s Watermelon Fest director, said all donations the fraternity receives will be given to the local Salvation Army.
“It’s a great way to give back to the community,” Vanderlest said. “They get the food to where it’s needed. In 2005, when Hurricane Katrina hit, we raised 108,000 pounds of food. Sixty-thousand pounds of that food was sent to the coast to help the folks down there.”
2006’s food drive raised almost 113,000 pounds of food for the Salvation Army, he said.
Any food the sororities collect will be due Thursday before the festivities begin.
“We’re going to take a big truck down to a weigh station on Old West Point Road, and weigh it,” Vanderlest said. “Then we’ll fill the truck up with the food a sorority has collected to see how much they actually picked up.”
A sorority volleyball tournament will kick off the event Wednesday at 2 p.m. at the Lambda Chi house.
“It’s a double elimination tournament between the sororities with an intramural sports referee officiating the games,” Vanderlest said. “Kappa Delta won last year’s tournament and Tri Delta was the runner-up; they’ll both receive first round byes in this year’s competition. I hope the girls make a great turn out. Last year, they showed up all painted up, whooping and hollering while clanging their cowbells. It typically draws a great crowd.”
The Watermelon Fest queen dinner will also be held Wednesday night.
“The queen is elected by the sororities,” Vanderlest said. “We want a queen who best represents her sorority and also embodies community outreach. The queen, along with her sorority’s president, Watermelon Fest coordinator and house mother will join our house for a semi-formal dinner. The queen will come back on Thursday, where she’ll be judged by a panel of three faculty members.”
Thursday, Lambda Chi will hold a barbecue dinner at its fraternity house. The dinner will be open to all sorority members.
The fest will conclude with a performance by rock band Splendid Chaos at Rick’s Caf.
“Sorority members can either buy a packet in advance for the dinner, which will allow them to get into both the dinner and Rick’s Caf for free that night,” Vanderlest said, “or they can pay at the door of each event.
The exact price has not yet been announced, he said.
The party at Rick’s is open to the public and the winning sorority will be announced.
“All of the proceeds that we raise will also go to the Salvation Army,” Vanderlest said. “They’ll use the money to purchase things that we can’t give them, such as perishable foods.”
The winner will be based on the amount of food collected, the elected queen’s interview, the winner of the volleyball tournament and the artistic element, which involves each sorority designing and decorating a watermelon.
“The winners will receive a trophy, but the important thing they’ll get is bragging rights for a whole year,” Vanderlest said. “These girl’s are very competitive; bragging rights mean a lot to them.”
Sophomore and member of Phi Mu Alex St. P said her sorority went door to door asking people for canned food for Watermelon Fest.
“We really tried to get a lot of good stuff to donate,” she said.
Freshman and member of Phi Mu Anna Rush said the girls in her sorority are excited about the Fest.
“The work we’ve done has helped us all bond as sisters,” she said.
The end of Watermelon Fest does not mark the end of the work that the Lambda Chi fraternity puts in to collecting canned food. November is the start of the national food drive competition between Lambda Chi chapters.
“In November, we’ll go around placing bags all around Starkville,” Vanderlest said. “We’ll leave a note with these bags asking residents to donate food. About a week later, we’ll go around town collecting these bags and dropping them off to the Salvation Army.