By Abbie Steinly, Staff writer
Students are gathering up their spare change to donate to Sigma Gamma Rho’s second annual Dime Wars, happening until April 19, in the lower level of Degenstein Campus Center.
The sorority holds the competition as a philanthropy event to raise money for the March of Dimes, an organization that works to improve the health of mothers and babies by researching the prevention of birth defects and infant mortality.
March for Dimes began as the National Institute for Infantile Paralysis out of President Roosevelt’s struggle with polio. Later on it became the March of Dimes and has been around for 80 years, per their website.
“We choose to do Dime Wars to donate to and promote our philanthropy March of Dimes and make people more aware of the cause,” said Sigma Gamma Rho’s treasurer, Donique Haynes.
Junior Will Claxton also sees the importance of raising money for this particular philanthropy. “To me, the March of Dimes represents an opportunity for all potential mothers and children to start and maintain a healthy family,” Claxton said.
Students can donate their spare change to any or all of the Greek organizations on campus.
The two and a half weeklong philanthropic competition is a part of Greek Week, the annual competition between all of the Greek organizations on campus.
For Dime Wars, every sorority and every fraternity have a bucket and whoever donates the most money will win 100 points for Greek Week.
There will be one winner from out of all the sororities and one winner out of all of the fraternities.
When students donate, they gain points for giving dimes and lose points for giving other change or dollars.
“Dimes increase a team’s points while everything else decreases points. For example, if someone put a dollar in a jar and a dime, that team would have -90 for their score,” said Haynes.
Dimes are the only things that add points to a teams total, which is what a team will put in their own jar.
Organizations will put any other currencies into other organizations jars to decrease their points.
Last year, the sorority held Dime Wars during the month of March, but this year they decided to wait until April and connect it with Greek Week. It started on April 2 and will continue through April 19.
The fundraiser is based off of the traditional, more commonly known, Penny Wars, but is customized to fit the sorority’s philanthropy March of Dimes.
Another March for Dimes event in the area before students leave to travel back home is in Danville, Pennsylvania at the Geisinger Medical Center.
Per an event section on the March for Dimes website, the participants will be asking for donations to support them walking or running.
The event starts at 10:30 a.m. on May 6 during the last reading day for Susquehanna students before finals.
The sorority also has their Spring 2018 Neophyte Presentation on Saturday April 7th at 7:22 p.m. outside of the Blough-Weis Library.
This special event will showcase all of the new members of Sigma Gamma Rho.
Other events that are part of Greek Week include, Olympic games, The Amazing Race, Trivia and Airband.
Sisters from Sigma Gamma Rho will be at their Dime Wars table in Lower Deg every week day from 11:00 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. for students to come by and donate.
