Members of the Greek community will come together to karaoke for literacy at the Rose Theater this Wednesday at the 16th Annual Pi Beta Phi Karaoke competition, where members of Greek life will gather to compete and raise funds for the non-profit, First Book.
First Book is a non-profit organization that has distributed more than 120 million books and educational resources to low income families throughout the United States and Canada. First Book also hopes to improve the quality of education by adapting modern technology, and by having new high quality books available on an on going basis for children.
Sponsored by Pi Beta Phi, Karaoke Night will consist of a skit from each chapter on campus as well as a speed-reading competition.
Known for its outrageous skits preformed year after year, this event continues to be one of the most successful sorority philanthropy events on campus.
Last year’s “Rock and Roll” theme was greatly successful and lead to $14,000 raised for charity.
This year’s theme “Choose 901” theme is oriented toward trying to gain community interest and relating to non-Greek students.
Freshmen Shelby Dozier is the philanthropy chair for Pi Beta Phi chapter for the University of Memphis and has been in charge of organizing the event and feels this event will be fun for all people in attendance, even non-Greek students.
“Everyone has been really on board with it,” Dozier said. “We wanted it to be Memphis related, we liked the idea of getting everyone involved it.”
And although the event is for fun, Dozier also mentions how some will take the competition seriously.
“I would not say its is super competitive, it is more for fun.” Dozier said. “But I do know people will be competitive.”
This years speed read competition will involve a nominated king or queen that will get on stage and try and read a Dr. Seuss book as quickly as possible.
This competition will also include an angel wing contest. During this contest, the speed-readers will be judged, not only on their reading, but also on a pair of angel wings being worn. The criteria for judging will be creativity and design.
“Even if you are not involved in Greek life, you can come out and see your classmates,” Dozier said. “It also helps boost literacy, which is what we are trying to do.”
Freshmen Civil Engineering student Malachi Warren works as the event chair for this event for Zeta Beta Tau and talked about how much work everyone has put into this event.
“We have been practicing every night for two to three hours a night,” Warren said. “We even practiced on the weekend due to the snow and ice last week.”
Warren also mentioned how much work they have put in off the dance floor as well.
“We’ve been going non-stop preparing for the event, by donating books for the event” Warren said. “I would say we have put in a hell of a lot of work.”
