After seeing the makings of a great team during Greek Week, Sigma Kappa sorority and Phi Gamma Delta fraternity decided to fuel their efforts for a bigger cause: Pita Pit Give Back Night philanthropy. 

The event will take place 5 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Pita Pit, 114 Welch Ave. Ten percent of sales made during the time period will be split between Sigma Kappa and FIJI’s causes to benefit Alzheimer’s research and the American Red Cross.

“This event is something to talk about because we are involving the community as we try to better the community that we live in,” said Sam Pearce, philanthropy chair of FIJI and junior in civil engineering. “We partnered up with a local restaurant, Pita Pit, in order to raise money for the American Red Cross and Alzheimer’s research.

“The way that we are going about raising money is new, and there are not many philanthropies like it [at Iowa State]. The typical philanthropy is one where you go over to a house and get some food there,” he said. “This means that it is mainly greeks who go to these events, leaving out the rest of the community. That is something that we are trying to change with this event. We are trying to reach out to the community.”

Katie Watson, president of Sigma Kappa and junior in marketing, said she can’t wait for the joint philanthropy to take place.

“I am most excited about the fact that I think it could be a really big success,” Watson said. “A lot of greek philanthropies surround food, so partnering with such a popular restaurant is really exciting to be able to have the opportunity to raise a substantial amount of money for such great causes.”

“Giving back is so important, and we try to brainstorm fun and creative ways to get the greek and Ames communities involved in our causes every year.”

Watson credits the spark that ignited this philanthropy to Greek Week.

“Our houses were paired together for Greek Week and had such a great time working together that we wanted to contribute to each other’s philanthropic efforts, so we decided to do this event,” Watson said.

Elizabeth Baugh, Sigma Kappa philanthropy chairwoman and senior in computer engineering, said the teamwork demonstrated by both chapters heavily influenced their decision to partner up for the philanthropy.  

“Both our houses seemed to get along really well, so I contacted the FIJI philanthropy chair, and we arranged to collaborate,” Baugh said. “[Sam Pearce] has been amazing. He is really on top of everything and extremely organized. They have a great philanthropy program.”

Pearce took initiative with the upcoming event when he “was able to contact the owner by calling into the store and asking for her. As I told her about my idea, she jumped on board. She was very helpful and worked with us making sure that everything was taken care of. After talking with her there was not much left to do but promote the event.”

Pearce said giving to philanthropies benefits communities near and far.

“After the flood that hit [in Ames] last summer, I was reminded that disaster can hit anywhere at any time,” he said. “That is why support of organizations like the American Red Cross can help communities around the world.”