Alpha Phi D.C. Parents

Spring Is In The Air!

2010-04-05T12:41:00.000-07:00

Hello Parents!

Spring is finally here in DC, the cherry blossoms are in full bloom and the Alpha Phis are back in school mode after a relaxing spring break. Many sisters went away together for their break to places all over the country and even abroad - check out new pictures on shutterfly of groups of Alpha Phis having fun on their spring break.

In other news, on behalf of Alpha Phi we hope you all had a wonderful Passover or Easter, or both! Some of the girls held a Passover seder at the house for girls who didn't get to go home to their families for the holiday which was nice to feel at home in some ways.

In Greek Life news, Alpha Phi won two different philanthropy events in the past few weeks - Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity's philanthropy for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and Pi Beta Phi Sorority's wiffle ball event to raise money for their philanthropy, First Book.

Now we are coming into formal season and Alpha Phi's formal on April 15th is going to be spectacular! All of the girls are very excited and there will be pictures updated as soon as the night is over.

Until then, enjoy spring time,

Sara Goldschmidt
Director of Community Relations

HEART WEEK - Or Month?

2010-02-17T20:10:00.000-08:00

Hello Parents!

It has been a busy month here for Alpha Phi because we just finished a very successful HEART WEEK! Not only was it tons of fun, but we also had a great turnout from the rest of Greek Life and the events went very smoothly thanks to Emily Primack and Emily Hytha!

Here's what we did during Heart Week:

1) A hoops for hearts basketball tournament for the fraternities AND a hula hoops for heart tournament for the sororities.

2) A card making and dessert party in the Alpha Phi house - the cards went to children in the cardiac ward of the local hospital and the dessert was for fun :)

3) A healthy heart BBQ at the Alpha Phi house

4) Our annual King of Hearts party

Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity won our hearts in the end!

Usually, we have a Dating Game at the end of Heart Week, but because of all the snow we had it had to be cancelled this year. Speaking of snow, as I'm sure you all know, we had no school last week and Alpha Phi took advantage of that time to offer some sisterly bonding at the house. Many girls sat in the living room and played games or watched movies during the storm, and it was a lot of fun!

This past weekend for Valentines Day we also had a valentine making party at the house and ate more baked goods - chocolate and friends, what better way to spend the holiday?

Last, this week we are participating in SigEp's philanthropy event called Sweetheart Week - we hope to win and I will keep you updated.

It truly has been a whole month of hearts, but now that we are back in action weather wise it's time to get back into school mode.

I will be back with more updates soon!

Sara Goldschmidt

Director of Community Relations

sgold12@gwmail.gwu.edu

Happy Holidays From Alpha Phi!

2009-12-17T08:00:00.000-08:00

Dear Parents,

With the stress of finals coming to an end and the semester winding down, it's time for the holidays! If you're not already with your daughters, I'm sure you are getting just as excited to see them as they are to see you.

These past couple of months have been filled with excitement for all of us. We had a fantastic semi formal in November at which everyone looked absolutely beautiful as you can see in the picture above - check out some more pictures from it at http://alphaphidc.shutterfly.com/. We also had a delicious Aphi pre-Thanksgiving dinner for the sisters with all of the best turkey-day foods.

This month, we sent out holiday cards to our troops through a philanthropy event held by one our fraternity neighbors, Pi Kapp. Along those same lines, some of our talented sisters decorated an Alpha Phi holiday ornament for another fraternity's event.

Now, it's time for a little break to spend time with you, and when we return we have so many exciting things on our agenda including many events with other members of Greek life, some exciting community service, and of course heart week!

I'll keep you updated when we return - until then, have a happy and healthy holiday season!

Sara Goldschmidt

Director of Community Relations

p.s. Feel free to email me with any questions or concerns - sgold12@gwmail.gwu.edu

A PHInominal Weekend!

2009-10-21T08:31:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was truly an amazing success! Your company at the Red Dress Gala helped our chapter raise over $12,000 towards the Alpha Phi Foundation (Cardiac Care) On behalf on the GW Alpha Phi Chapter, I would like to say THANK YOU! We had a great time and really hope that you all did too. Parents weekend always goes by a little too quickly.

Check out some of the Red Dress Gala pictures on our photo site: http://alphaphidc.shutterfly.com/ (If you have any problems viewing this page, please send me an e-mail at eprimack@gwmail.gwu.edu)

Welcome Back!

2009-09-21T10:11:00.000-07:00

Hello Parents! and Welcome back after a much needed Summer vacation. I know my summer was amazing and I hope all of yours were too! There is as always A LOT going on with Alpha Phi!

After an intense weekend, we have our NEW pledge class! (PC'09) They are all amazing women and we are SO happy to welcome them into our Alpha Phi family. We celebrated on Bid Day by taking buses to Cactus Cantina and enjoyed some tasty Mexican food while getting to know each other better. We also had a mixer this past weekend with Phi Psi (one of GWU's fraternities) at Eye Bar to welcome our new members. The theme was "When I Grow Up..." Girls came dressed up as politicians, doctors, fanta girls and geek squads! It was truly a fun time. Make sure to check out the pictures!

http://alphaphidc.shutterfly.com/

The weather is changing and tis the season for sickness! Help prevent your daughter from getting sick by reminding her to get LOTS of sleep, fluid and vitamins! I'm thinking something along the lines of a care package with home remedies would be nice (cough mom cough)

Our annual RED DRESS GALA is coming up which means Parents Weekend! We are so excited and are anticipated a wonderful weekend. Feel free to stop by the house, ask any questions or just hang out. We all love the company. If you have any questions about Red Dress feel free to e-mail me or Jenna Magister at magister@gwmail.gwu.edu A common question that some parents have is "Do I need to buy a Red Dress ticket for my daughter?" The answer is NO! Their ticket has already been included in dues!

On the Alpha Phi Agenda:

This Thursday- Nationals vs. Dodgers! We will be attending a baseball game at the new Nats Stadium with the brothers of Pi Kappa Phi.

Saturday- The ladies from PC'08 and PC'09 will be brunching and speed dating to get to know each other better!

We are looking forward to seeing you all very soon! As always, if you have any questions, concerns or funny stories, please feel free to e-mail me!

Emily Primack

Director of Community Reltations

eprimack@gwmail.gwu.edu

Summer Time Finally!

2009-05-23T09:46:00.000-07:00

Hello Parents!

It has been a while, but after the chaotic season of finals, we finally made it to Summer! I think I speak for everyone when I say we all really needed a break from classes, not to mention the rain!

Here are some updates about philanthropy and some Alpha Phi whereabouts.

- Although we did not win PIKE firemen's challenge week, we still helped raised thousands of dollars towards the Burn Foundation and had a great time participating in the events!

- Our Aphis abroad are doing wonderful and we cannot wait until they rejoin us in the Fall.

- We have set the date for Red Dress Gala and you should have all received a "save the date" e-mail. If you have not, please let me know and I will make sure to send that asap! The event is planned for the evening of October 17th and we are all very excited!

- Recruitment, while it seems far in the distance is quickly approaching and we are growing more and more anxious for new sisters! If you know girls attending GWU in the fall, encourage them to go through Recruitment as it is a wonderful experience.

- SELF CHALLENGE! You can still sign up and help our chapter win the challenge! The link can be found in the previous post, and please e-mail me if you have any questions at all.

Summer Plans in Alpha Phi- Being in D.C. we are all exposed to great summer opportunities! Internships, jobs and amazing experiences. Many sisters are staying in D.C. whether it be for a fantastic internship or participating in one of the highly competitive GW summer programs. I know that I will be heading to Panama for 7 weeks and other sisters are traveling abroad as well. This blog will not be updated as regularly throughout the summer, however as always, if you have any concerns, please feel free to e-mail me.

Have a great summer!

Sincerely,

Emily Primack

Director of Community Relations

Greek Excellence!

2009-04-20T09:15:00.000-07:00

Just some quick notes and updates. Last night, Alpha Phi was awarded with level GOLD in Greek Excellence which is amazing and automatically nominates us for chapter of the year! This will be announced Wednesday. Along with receiving level GOLD, our own Alex Bachich was announced, "New Member of the Year", we are very proud of her!

This week is PIKE's Fireman Challenge and the events start tonight with Volleyball games! I will keep you updated on our status with their philanthropy.

Finally, here is a note from the Red Dress Committee, please take a look:

The Alpha Phi annual Red Dress Gala is coming up in October and our Red Dress committee has been hard at work to ensure that this year’s gala is the best our chapter has ever seen. There are three sub-committees working on Red Dress—the venue committee, entertainment committee, and donation committee. Members of the donation committee already have many exciting donated items for the auction, but they are looking for more donations. These items can be anything from a nice bracelet to a week-long stay at a vacation home, sports tickets, or a spa package! All proceeds go to the Alpha Phi Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting women in their collegiate years and throughout their lives. With support like yours the Alpha Phi Foundation is able to:

♥ Improve women’s heart health through its Heart to Heart grant program

♥ Advance leadership development and training for women

♥ Award graduate and undergraduate scholarships totaling more than $140,000 annually

♥ Provide financial aid to members facing crises

Parents, if you know of anyone willing to contribute a donation to the Red Dress Gala please contact Alex Bachich at abachich@gwmail.gwu.edu. Our chapter would really appreciate your support. Thank you!

Any questions? e-mail me @ eprimack@gwmail.gwu.edu

Sincerely,

Emily Primack

Director of Community Relations

Updates and Formal!

2009-04-14T12:15:00.000-07:00

Parents-

After overloading on matzah this week, I am finally ready to update you all on Alpha Phi's most current events!

Unfortunately we did not win AEPi's Sugar High Week, but we quickly got over it as we are preparing for PIKE Fireman's Challenge which will take place next weekend.

This week is definitely hectic around the GW campus. Admitted Students have come to check out the area and of course we are all smiling and being extra helpful. My room is being shown as the "typical freshman dorm" and I can't tell you how many times I have answered questions along the lines of "do your parents worry?" or "how the heck are you going to get all this stuff home?" Which leads me to my next point. Your daughters have A LOT of stuff (yes mom, I know I do too) and since the end of the school year is approaching, it is time to start thinking of where all of that stuff is going to go. An organization on campus called store4summer is run by fellow greeks and have offered to donate $5 per girl towards our philanthropy. SO encourage your daughters to start thinking about this!

Now for the good stuff! We had formal last weekend and it was a HUGE success. Everyone looked absolutely gorgeous and the location was perfect. The formal event was held at a restaurant in Union Station which had enough room for everyone to dance and to hang out if they wanted a break. Make sure you check out the picture page for some photos!

Coming up, Alpha Phi along with the rest of the Greek Community will be finding out our Greek Excellence standings. Greek Excellence is a combination of many things that include: your chapter's involvement with the GW community and the DC community, annual philanthropy events, the uniqueness of your chapter and many more things. It is crucial for Alpha Phi to receive gold ( the rankings go as follows: gold, silver, bronze...nothing). We will find out the results form that soon and I will of course keep you all updated!

SELF Challenge is upon us! SELF magazine and Alpha Phi International have teamed up to encourage girls to live happy healthy lifestyles. They are doing this through the SELF challenge! The chapter with the most competitors wins $3,000 towards an Alpha Phi event. We won this last year and would really really love to win again this year. Anyone can sign up, just click this link and fill in the information. Make sure you enter Alpha Phi for the sorority and then GW for the chapter. Feel free to send this link along to friends, co-workers and family! https://secure.self.com/user/challenge/registration

Community Service- This weekend is Relay for Life and Alpha Phi has registered as a team. We will be participating in the event all weekend and would love your support. Although I don't want to beg, any donations would be wonderful. You can donate through our team website. http://main.acsevents.org/goto/alpha.phi

In addition to Relay for Life, our Director of Community Service just recently got back from Panama where she was helping with Operation Smile. Our donations were very much appreciated by the organization and you can also find pictures on the shutterfy website.

A few reminders to conclude: Check out the picture website: http://alphaphidc.shutterfly.com/

Hope everything is going well and as always, if you have any questions or concerns, please e-mail me!

Sincerely,

Emily Primack

Director of Community Relations

Back from Spring Break and ready for some better weather!

2009-04-02T11:38:00.000-07:00

(Pictures from various Spring Breaks and other Alpha Phi events!)

Hello everyone!

Like always, I have lots of updates! It took absolutely no time for Alpha Phi to get back into the swing of things post spring break...although we may have preferred the beaches to classes, we are back! The first week home, the sisters participated in Sigma Chi's philanthropy called "Derby Days". Not to brag or anything, but Alpha Phi kicked some major booty and WON! We were happy to support our fellow greeks and now we have a nice trophy :) Right now we are competing in AEPi's philanthropy, "Sugar High" (foundation to help research for the cure for Type 1 Diabetes) So far we are doing really well. With the help of a few specific sisters (Lohr!), we got second place last night in Greek Idol! The events will end Saturday and then we will find out who wins..fingers crossed! While we are having lots of fun with external philanthropy, what we are all really looking forward to is FORMAL this friday! Tomorrow we will all get dressed up and head to Thunder Grill located in Union Station for a great night. I will of course, post pictures and let you all know how it goes!

Some other news for you:

This past weekend, the sisters of Alpha Phi gathered on the national mall in our new blue matching letters to take pictures for the website! While we are currently updating the site, check it out here http://gwalphaphi.com

Our Director of Community Service, Brianna Sachs, left today for Panama! Alpha Phi has been collecting dental supplies and donations for Operation Smile and Brianna is traveling to deliver our donations as well as volunteer her time! We are really excited about her trip and even more excited to hear about the children that she works with. To find out more about Operation Smile click here: http://www.operationsmile.org While we are no longer collecting donations, the organization is really great and could always use the extra help!

This month is going to be busy for Alpha Phi. We are participating in an all day volunteer event with Jumpstart. Sisters will be coloring with DC elementary students, hanging out and just acting as the wonderful role models that we all are :) In addition to lots of papers and exams, Senior Send off is coming up! April 26th we will be hosting a brunch to celebrate the accomplishments of the Alpha Phi seniors!

I finally got the picture website up with LOTS of new pictures, so please check it out: http://alphaphidc.shutterfly.com/

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to e-mail me! I hope everyone is having a wonderful start to Spring!

Sincerely,

Emily Primack

Director of Community Relations

eprimack@gwmail.gwu.edu

The season of Midterms

2009-03-06T13:19:00.000-08:00

With midterms under our belts and spring break in sight, Alpha Phi has been doing quite alright. Lots of updates!

Two weekend ago, Alpha Phi had a "Euro Electronic Rave" wit the brothers of Pi Kappa Alpha. Everyone dressed in bright colors and spandex and danced the night away. The outfits caused some laughs, not to mention a fair amount of great pictures.

Last weekend our President, VPs, Director of New Member Development and an "Emerging Leader" traveled to Tyson's Corner in Virginia for the Alpha Phi regional conference. Our chapter was named "Chapter of the Region" which we are really excited about. At the conference the girls had the chance to share experiences about past events and meet some fellow sisters. The Iota Iota chapter was praised on many accounts, so be proud APhi parents!

Last night Alpha Phi co-hosted a P.E. (Physical Education) date party with the brothers of Sigma Phi Epsilon. The party was held at Left Bank in Adams Morgan where everyone was dressed in their best gym outfits. Not only did we all have a fabulous time but we got to dress in COMFY clothes! In addition to hosting a party, Alpha Phi also co-hosted a community service project with the sisters of Delta Gamma. The girls made pancakes at midnight to raise money towards the Alpha Phi Foundation and Delta Gamma's philanthropy.

Although Spring Break is near we have A LOT on our agenda. In the next month Alpha Phi will be participating in numerous External Philanthropy events such as: Sigma Chi Derby Days, AEPi's Sugar High week and Pi Kappa Alpha's Fireman's Challenge. There will of course be updates and pictures from everything! This Sunday we are having an Alumnae Dinner at the Alpha Phi house catered by Bucca de Bepo! In addition, Alpha Phi's website is undergoing a major makeover so keep your eye out for the new site! The six girls abroad could not be happier as they are constantly sending us pictures and updates. Check out some of their pictures in the " Abroad Phimales" photo album.

Intramurals are still in full swing! We are finishing up basketball and starting soccer as well as some football. Gamefaces on! We take our sporting events very seriously as we compete for Sorority Cup!

The Iota Iota chapter is still collecting toothpaste, floss and other dental objects for Operation Smile. Towards the end of the year our Director of Community Service will actually be traveling to the site for Operation Smile so please support us!

Alpha Phi will be everywhere this Spring Break. A group of girls are traveling to Jamaica, many girls are going over seas, and most of us will be found on the sunny beaches! A few girls are participating in Alternative Spring Break where they will be building houses as well as other projects in New Orleans.

As always, if you have any comments or concerns, please feel free to e-mail me at eprimack@gwmail.gwu.edu

Sincerely,

Emily Primack

Director of Community Relations

Heart Week!

2009-02-11T15:57:00.000-08:00

Well, we had an extremely successful heart week, raising over $2,000 towards the Alpha Phi Foundation. In addition to the heart week events, we introduced a new way for fraternities to gain points (in order to be crowned the "king of hearts"). Each sister had a heart to give...at the end of the week she gave her heart to a fraternity which counted toward their total points. The boys did everything from nice text messages to bringing chocolate and flowers over to the house. In the end, it was Sigma Chi who became our King of Hearts. We held our King of Hearts party at Panache which was a lot of fun and everyone looked great! Our dating game was also extremely successful as we auctioned off Sara Plotkin and some other APhi sisters! Winners were awarded gift certificates to Founding Farmers! As Valentines Day approaches, we are getting excited to deliver our Heart Week valentines to the cardio patients at the GWU hospital.

On a separate note, this past weekend Alpha Phi was awarded Sorority Cup! Our efforts in Intramural Sports definitely payed off and I personally cannot wait to see another APhi flag put up in the gym. We are continuing our involvement this semester with basketball, soccer and a little flag football.

While Heart Week is now over, we are revving up for more. The regional Alpha Phi Conference will take place the last weekend in February near by and we couldn't be more excited to see some fellow sisters. Alpha Phi is also participating in a lot of external philanthropy. It is always a good idea to support our fellow greeks so heres the plug: We are collecting books for Kappa Kappa Gamma so the next time you are sending a package, include a children' book! We, as well as KKG would really appreciate it. But wait! Don't close that package yet! We are currently working on Operation Smile for our monthly community service project and would love if you could help us out. Each sister is being asked to bring a small item such as toothpaste, floss or toothbrushes so if you want...that would be lovely.

Thats all for now, again, if you have any questions at all please don't hesitate to e-mail me. Also, if you have any suggestions or things you want to hear more about, shoot me an e-mail.

Pictures!

2009-02-04T16:50:00.001-08:00

Welcome Parents!

2009-02-04T16:33:00.000-08:00

Hey Alpha Phi Parents!

My name is Emily Primack and I am the Director of Community Relations. We have had some problems with parent/family communication in the past, but hopefully this blog will keep everyone updated on recent events and activities! If you have any problems at all, please feel free to e-mail me at eprimack@gwmail.gwu.edu

So getting right into it, After returning from a very much-needed winter break , APhi got ready for a weekend of history! Inauguration was a hectic and particularly cold time, however, after camping out for hours, it all seemed worth it. From the "We are One" concert at the Lincoln Memorial to Inauguration on the National Mall, APhi was everywhere! After inauguration many sisters dressed up to attend the GWU Inaugural Ball. Although we enjoyed sharing the capital, we are all very excited to have our space back!

Right now we are in the midst of our annual Heart Week which is a week of philanthropic activities to raise awareness about heart disease. So far the fraternities have competed in a Hoops for Hearts basketball tournament, we have held a healthy heart BBQ and are looking forward to valentine making and a Dating Game later this week.

Even though, the semester just began, the Iota Iota Chapter has been non-stop. We went ice-skating at the Sculpture Garden at the National Gallery and participated in Spring Rush events for some fraternities.

I hope this will become a good way for everyone to learn about Alpha Phi in D.C. Most likely, I will be blogging about once every two weeks, so keep your eyes open!

Sincerely,

Emily Primack

Director Of Community Relations.

*Feel free to send along this link to others that might be interested in Alpha Phi activities!