Kappa Chapter at the University of Nebraska held their annual Rake & Bake, a community service event, and co-hosted Wings for Wishes with Chi Omega Sorority in support of Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Brother Jack Tickner, Noble Ruler of Kappa Chapter, oversaw both events this year as he wraps up his time as Noble Ruler. Brother Tickner said Wings for Wishes was originally Chi Omega Sorority’s event, when AGR proposed a cost-saving idea of having AGR brothers cook the wings with their grills, rather than catering in the wings. Even better, an alumnus of Kappa Chapter, Brother Jared McKeever, who works for Smart Chicken, a premium fresh poultry brand known for its air-chilling process, helped the chapter get the wings donated from his company, resulting in event costs of little to nothing.
He explained that the event raises funds by selling prorated tickets that brothers sell to campus and community members, then a few brothers volunteer to help cook the wings and host the event the day of. This year, Kappa Chapter raised $2,000, which was donated along with another $2,000 raised by Chi Omega Sorority members.
“It symbolizes what is achievable when everybody comes together and puts their minds towards something that we can all work towards providing for each other,” Brother Tickner said about the Wings for Wishes Event.
Brother Tickner also explained the Rake & Bake event the chapter has held for years in collaboration with two other agricultural fraternities on campus, FarmHouse Fraternity and Alpha Gamma Sigma Fraternity. He said the three fraternities reside on the University of Nebraska East Campus, which is dedicated to the agriculture department at the university. Every year, the three fraternities get together and rake leaves up in their neighborhood. Brother Tickner said the street they live on is split up and members rake leaves, bag them up and dispose of them. Afterwards, the members of the three fraternities gather to grill burgers and hang out together.
“We're a community, the same as the neighborhood surrounding us,” Brother Tickner said. “We're not there to just take from everybody else and live our own separate lives, but we want to be involved in the community help other people out.”
He said there are some elderly people who live on the same street as Kappa Chapter and other fraternities they rake with. Brother Tickner said raking their leaves and disposing of them is one less thing their neighbors have to worry about or pay to have taken care of.
He noted his favorite thing about these events is being able to get together with other Greek organizations on campus, no matter what the organization’s mission or values are. He said at the end of the day, they are all there for the same reason.
“When we can get together and work alongside with other Greek organizations on campus, that really shows that we have a good, strong community here on our campus.”
