ZTA Wins TKE Week: For the Kids!

Written by Emily Logue

April 2020

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FOR THE KIDS! Three weeks ago, Zeta participated in TKE’s philanthropy week, benefiting St. Jude’s Children Hospital, and we won! As a chapter we raised a total of $20,341 in just five days. We fully support TKE, love their members, and wanted to make the biggest impact we could, especially given the uncertainty in the world. 

The Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity began its partnership with the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in 1972. The founder of St. Jude, Danny Thomas, was also a member of TKE at the University of Toledo. Danny was an entertainer and comedian following his time at Toledo. He is known for having one of the most successful, and long-running comedy shows, The Danny Thomas Show.

Danny made a promise while he was in college that if he ever got famous, he would open up a hospital. Following his time at Toledo, Danny was struggling to find work. He turned to St. Jude Thaddeus, the patron saint of hopeless causes, and said, “Show me the way in life, and I will build you a shrine.” Soon after, Danny began finding employment which jump-started his entertainment career. He used his newfound fame and decided he wanted to change the lives of children and families forever. In 1962, St. Jude opened in Memphis, Tenn.

Since 2009, TKE has raised over $4.8 million. In 2011, TKE committed to raising $1 million dollars in five years. They completed this mission a year early. In February 2016, they announced a commitment to raise $2.6 million in six years. They completed this mission on April 9, 2019, three years early. In August 2019, TKE made a commitment to raise $10 million, in 10 years. 

This year’s TKE week was a little different than previous ones. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Virginia Tech closing campus, everything was done virtually and online. However, TKE made this week just as exciting as it would have been if it was in person. I would like to shout out Vincent Sturniolo and Mark Ebner for being the best coaches, and for getting us beyond excited to take on something much bigger than ourselves.

With the help of our coaches, TKE created a Facebook group that allowed our whole chapter to be involved. They kept us informed and up to date with new opportunities to raise money and bring awareness. Our coaches also brought our attention to different things that St. Jude does and where we could make an impact.

The total money raised for St. Jude during TKE Week totaled over $162,000.

Our coaches offered different point opportunities throughout the week to help us keep our first-place position on the leaderboard. Different methods were used to raise money such as posting bingo boards on social media, creating individual fundraising pages on the St. Jude page, and this crazy game called donation station in which one person would donate and then nominate another person to either match that donation or increase the amount. On the last night of TKE week, ZTA raised $4,168 in four hours through the donation station.

I want to give a huge shout out to our sisters Rachel Reed, Emma Topp, Gabby Repp, and Hannah Luby for being our top individual fundraisers. You guys absolutely killed it! They raised over $5,000 combined.

One story that our coaches brought to our attention was Miles’ story. Miles is on his last chemotherapy treatment and is unable to celebrate that due to COVID-19. As a chapter, we decided to flood him with cards and sweet messages to celebrate him and the strength he has had. On top of all of the cards, Karli Byrne decided to compile videos from all of us to send to Miles congratulating him.

Click here to watch that video.

Karli said, “We all have been struggling in different ways during this quarantine and TKE week was something I think we all put our everything into because we realized there are people struggling every single day way worse than us. This video opportunity was something that made us feel like we could be something bigger than ourselves and hopefully help to make someone’s day a little better. #ftk”

One amazing thing that came out of this whole week, on top of all the money we raised, was seeing how excited girls were getting for our own philanthropy this upcoming fall. It was amazing to see our whole chapter working towards one goal. Emma Guido said, “As a new member, it was so exciting to take part in our first philanthropy week and to win TKE week! The whole week was so exciting, and I think I speak for everyone when I say it just made us more excited to raise money for our own philanthropy and all work together again for a greater purpose.”

TKE week wasn’t about trying to get the most points or to win the whole thing, but rather it was to bring awareness and raise money all for the kids. These kids have gone through things that many of us can’t imagine having to experience. Our donations are helping them and their families out in so many ways.

Vincent Sturniolo said, “This was my first time being a coach for an organization and my second time participating in TKE week overall. I honestly didn’t know what to expect out of this week as I’ve seen that in past years, the in-person events tend to be a huge contribution to our success. With that being said we didn’t really lose any motivation, just needed to adapt our fundraising strategies. TKE and ZTA have always been close and I at first thought that was the reason ZTA chose to continue to participate although TKE week was taking an online approach. I quickly learned through being your coach and through personal conversations that this wasn’t the only reason. It was so evident throughout the week that ZTA not only wanted to support us in our efforts but truly cared for the kids at St. Jude and did everything in their power to reach and surpass their fundraising goals. The energy throughout the Facebook group and all the group chats was so contagious and it was inspiring to be a part of. I can’t thank everyone in ZTA enough for their hard work during TKE week.”

Mark Ebner said, “This year was my first year being a coach and my first year experiencing TKE week at all. As a freshman coming into this, I expected that being an online coach would consist of just a few posts a day into our Facebook group and little effort. I quickly found out how wrong I was. Just as Vinny said, we got so much more energy and passion from ZTA for St. Jude than expected. In all honesty that energy and momentum from ZTA pushed me to put in more effort as a fundraiser and as a coach. There’s something about being surrounded by others that are all working for a common goal that pushes you to exceed. And that’s exactly what you guys did. It wasn’t about reputation or status, but we were raising money because two lives saved means a lot more than one. I got caught in the moments of excitement and would completely forget about anything else other than St. Jude. For that reason, I wanted to thank ZTA not just for overachieving, but for pushing me to do more and allowing me to truly experience a successful TKE week. We couldn’t have done it without you guys.”