Orphan's Halloween
My greatest role models and inspiration are my parents. The values and principles that they’ve instilled with me have defined the person I am today. I honestly can’t imagine growing up without them, however this is the case for the orphans we visited recently. When I heard about an opportunity to go volunteer at an orphanage, I immediately signed up.
It was a haunted house type event held at the orphanage that was sponsored by Delta Kappa Delta Sorority Inc. Accompanying them was Sigma Beta Rho Fraternity Inc., Iota Nu Delta Fraternity Inc., and us. When we first got there it was awkward, no one knew each other and everyone was just sticking with their respective groups. This changed when the costumes started coming out. As we all donned our gear (or face paint), we became more social, and started intermingling with each other. Another brother and I decided to be a little more involved, and we ended up getting our faces painted. I ended up looking like the grim reaper and my friend was a clown. By getting our faces painted, we got acquainted pretty fast with the DKD girls and it definitely helped us in a social aspect.
After face painting, we were all split up into two groups, half the brothers got paired up with SigRho brothers and IND brothers, while the rest of us were at our own station. My job was to sit underneath a table and then pop out and scare whoever walked by. When the event started, everyone adopted the personality of their roles and it worked out amazingly. Whenever I lunged out, the kids would run as fast as they can, while screaming at the top of their lungs. I hate to say it, but we actually made a girl cry because of how scared she was. When the event was over, all of us Greeks congratulated ourselves on job well done and we really got to talk to all of them.
After we took off our costumes, we went upstairs to where the kids were eating dinner. When we got there, we got a round of applause and a crowd full of smiling faces. Each one of the people I scared came up to me and gave me a handshake. The girl who cried even came up to me and gave me a hug! They loved the job we did and wanted us to come back again for next Halloween.
This event was honestly the most fun I’ve had being a brother of Delta Epsilon Psi. It exemplified both the service and social aspects that our fraternity stands for. I got to know a lot of different Greeks and I also got to give a great Halloween to orphans. Seeing their smiling faces, was heart warming to say the least, and doing it with your brothers made it just that much better.
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Suraj Parikh
Zeta Chapter
