More than 50 chapter members gathered to share song and dance with Arc of Tippecanoe clients, family members and staff and to present the local agency with a check for $7,500 on Nov. 12, 2022, at the Bauer Community Center in Lafayette.
For three hours on a Saturday night, chapter members had an evening of fun as they co-hosted a Barn Dance for clients of the Arc, a local agency that serves people with disabilities. At the end of the event, Pi Kappa Phi’s Ability Experience Chairman Grant Gottlieb surprised the executive director of the local Arc an unrestricted check to help fund operations.
The $7,500 donation reflects the national fraternity’s Circle of Giving Grant to local agencies in cities where chapter members raise funds. Each year, the Ability Experience, the national fraternity’s outreach program, allocates 25 percent of local chapter fund-raising to help a charitable organization in the community.
The money presented on Nov. 12, comes from some of the money raised by the chapter during the last four years for the Ability Experience.
The check presentation caught the Arc of Tippecanoe executive director totally off guard. She gasped when the check was presented to her and her executive board.
The chapter started volunteering with Arc programming in 2011. Typically, the chapter does at least two events with the local agency – Arctoberfest, a Halloween-based costume party in the fall semester and either a Second Chance Prom or a games night in the spring. Because the chapter was celebrating its Centennial on Oct. 29, we had to miss this year’s Arctoberfest. To make up for that, the chapter sponsored the Barn Dance.
Approximately three dozen Arc clients joined the chapter members in the first-of-its kind event.
You can assist the chapter’s annual fund-raising for Ability Experience by clicking the link below:
https://abilityexperience.org/chapter-experience/fundraising/
For more information about the chapter’s Ability Experience efforts contact Gottlieb at 317/989-7797 or at [email protected].
