Coming Spring 2007!
TRADITION OF HELPING
For the past 70 years, Chattanooga's T.C. Thompson’s Children’s Hospital has led the way in healthcare for children in the 29 counties of the four states that surround Chattanooga. The Delta Theta Chapter of Sigma Chi has been proud to support Children’s Hospital since 1992. Several patients that we have helped in particular this year were Jordan Hobgood, 6 years old, Lonniya Kelley, 2 years old, and teenagers Kate Tamashevich and Lauren Johnson.
We had a very successful Date Auction Monday night, raising around $1300 dollars. Tuesday during the day we received news coverage from Channel 9 news, informing the community what we were doing. Steak dinners were served all day and a formal dinner with speeches from some of the very kids our money is going to help, in the evening. We also raised $1,300 dollars.
Wednesday was Derby Games and they were a blast. Thank you to all the sororities for the wonderful amount of participation. The week culminated in a celebration Thursday night at the Chapter House. We had a musical guest as well as the Derby Queen competition and the presenting of the trophy to the winning sorority. First place went to the ladies of Sigma Kappa, second place was Kappa Delta, and coming in the third was Chi Omega. The week was highly successful, not to mention a great time. Thank you to all the groups that participated in the week and Melanie at Children’s Hospital for helping us.
The brothers of Delta Theta would like to extend our deepest gratitude to all the alumni that participated throughout the week and in our Golf Tournament preceding Derby Days. You all have helped our chapter immensely and we thank you immensely for it.
MISSION
The mission of Derby Days is easily stated: to serve the community. Since the birth of our Fraternity, Sigma Chis have endeavored to give back to our world. Because Derby Days affords each chapter the unique opportunity to positively impact the community, it has been the most publicized and visible way for chapters to serve others. Thus, it is imperative that the actions of each brother reflect our true goal. Let the mission of Derby Daysserving the communityprovide the foundation for each event and govern your every action before, during, and following Derby Days.
HISTORY
The tradition of Sigma Chi's Derby Days began in the spring of 1933 at the Alpha Beta chapter at the University of California-Berkeley, under the name "Channingway Derby." Located on Channing Way, the Alpha Beta Sigma Chis sponsored an event composed of a series of humorous skits. In fact, one publication later cited the Channingway Derby as "California's most amusing tradition."
In the spring of 1935, after receiving reports of the Channingway Derby, the Beta Sigma chapter at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville made plans for a similar event. But instead of presenting skits, the event was planned around an all-day track and field competition between the pledge classes of the nine sororities at Tennessee. More than 1,000 people were in attendance on the big day, November 1, 1935, to witness the first Derby involving campus sororities.
Coincidentally, on that day four Sigs from Delta chapter at the University of Georgia were visiting Knoxville and witnessed the festivities. The brothers took the idea back to their campus and named their production "Sigma Chi Derby," which seems to have stuck.
During the 1960s, Derby began to take on the philanthropic approach for which it is now known on many campuses. After the Cleo Wallace Center became Sigma Chi's Fraternity-wide service project in 1967, many chapters began using Derby as a fundraising event for the Center. Although some amount of charitable work had been done through Derby and similar events prior to that time, the Wallace Center project gave a much-needed boost to the concept of doing something for a needy group outside of campus.
The first Sigma Chi Derby Day at The University of Chattanooga was held in 1950 on Chamberlain Field and is one of the oldest annual events on the Chattanooga campus.
At the 1992 Leadership Training Workshop, the Children's Miracle Network (CMN) was introduced as Sigma Chi's suggested beneficiary of proceeds from chapter community service projects. The CMN, an alliance of 165 hospitals and health care facilities across the United States and Canada, generates funds for the children its associated hospitals serve. Seventy percent of the Fraternity's active chapters and many alumni chapters are located in the same city or within an hour's drive of one or more Network hospitals.
TODAY
Today, Sigma Chi Derby events are held to assist a number of charitable causes, some allocating a percentage of the proceeds to a local philanthropy and part to the Children's Miracle Network. Since Sigma Chi began raising money for charitable causes, the Fraternity has raised well over $2 million for these groups. During the 1999-2000 year alone, Sigma Chi chapters donated over $600,000 to CMN hospitals.
