The money raised by sororities participating in Derby Days is slated to be awarded to the Raleigh-based Frankie Lemmon School and Developmental Center in the coming month.
The check will be presented to the school in April at Pullen Park and will be written out for the $23,835 raised by the event, which beat the previous 2008 record of $20,000.
According to Jake McCaslin, Derby Days chair, the tradition began in 1936 at the University of Tennessee and has spread through national Greek societies since. It is hosted on campus by Sigma Chi fraternity, Delta Epsilon chapter.
“[Derby Days] is our annual philanthropy event and is a week-long competition between our eight pan-Hellenic sororities. This is the 35th year we’ve done this on campus,” McCaslin said. “The events include dance and karaoke competitions, a scavenger hunt, and field events.”
McCaslin said money was raised through $5 admission fees for people to view the competitions and private sponsors.
“The names of the sponsors were put on the back of the [Derby Days] T-shirts with a donation of $300. All monies went to the Frankie Lemmon School,” he said. “We also donated the money from T-shirt sales and collected box tops to get money for the school.”
This year, there was an added focus on getting more donations from sponsors, McCaslin said.
“This year, our goal was to increase donations and we planned thoroughly to achieve this. We had a couple big donors like Nypro Incorporated, who donated $500, the ‘John Boy and Billy [radio] Show,’ who donated $2,500, and Financial Marketplace, who donated $600,” McCaslin said. “We also made sure sororities were more knowledgeable about everything involved with Derby Days.”
Samantha Dowless, the director of activities of Delta Gamma sorority, said sororities competed in events, solicited for sponsors, and volunteered at the Frankie Lemmon School.
“Members had to go and interact with the students, help them learn, and played with them during the school day,” she said. “It’s a really great experience. It lets them see what the philanthropy is actually for, since most of the week is just social and competitive events. Volunteering really lets them see where the time and effort is going.”
Dowless said because Derby Days is a philanthropic event, as well as a competition, there is some potential for participants to be unhappy about the outcome.
“In any competition, no one wants to lose, but people would probably not be as motivated to participate if it wasn’t a competition,” she said. “It’s a good time people look forward to. I could see how people could be unhappy with the results, but that’s how it is with any competition.”
According to Dowless, the spirit of competition does not take away from the idea Derby Days is still a positive philanthropic event.
Mia Ahmad, the chair of Zeta Tau Alpha, the winning sorority of Derby Days, said the competitive nature of the event often draws unwarranted criticism.
“Some people think negatively of Derby Days because of all the competition,” she said. “The competition was intense, but not so intense that people were poor sports. Organized well and set up in a way as to be very fair.”
According to Ahmad, the winners were decided based on a point system, as opposed to purely funds raised. Sororities were awarded points based on their performance in events as well as the number of sponsors they acquired.
Ahmad said volunteering at the school was also a very beneficial experience.
“Part of the competition was volunteering at the school and it was the most positive part because it let you see what you were working for,” Ahmad said. “Every hour throughout the day, a pair of girls would go to help the teachers and play with the kids.”
According to Ahmad the money raised by the event went to fund programs and toys for the school and essentially anything else the kids needed.
“We got everyone really involved and it really unites the chapter,” Ahmad said.
