Music and dancing took center stage at the annual Chi Omega Songfest, which unites organizations around campus for some healthy competition in the name of charity.
This past weekend, Songfest was held in Rudder Auditorium, where 28 student organizations competed to win money for the philanthropies they chose to represent. Songfest is held annually in the fall semester and remains the largest Greek philanthropy event on Texas A&M’s campus.
Songfest was originally created by the sorority Chi Omega and is still organized by them today. Agricultural communications and journalism junior and member of Chi Omega Megan Smith serves as the philanthropy chair for Songfest.
“This is the 39th year of Songfest, which was created to raise money for local and national philanthropies,” Smith said. “It started out very small and has grown into this insane event and Chi Omega is so grateful for the organizations that put so much time and effort into their acts.”
On Friday night, a service social was held in the Rudder Exhibit Hall where patrons were able to see the service side of Songfest.
“There are six purposes in Chi Omega and one of them is selfless service, just like at Texas A&M,” Smith said. “It’s important, first and foremost, to give our time, money and effort to support organizations in our community as well as our nation.”
For many participants it was their first time performing at Songfest. Communication sophomore Rebecca Davis is a member of the Delta Gamma sorority, which was representing Service for Sight, a philanthropy that supports schools for the visually impaired and various organizations promoting sight preservation.
“Performing was such a fun and amazing experience, and it was such a rush of adrenaline,” Davis said. “Although we didn’t win, getting to have fun while raising money for our philanthropy was rewarding in itself.”
Each student organization represents a different philanthropy. Business management sophomore Briana Van Rensburg, member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority, said she was motivated to support the Boy’s and Girl’s Club of Brazos Valley through her performance.
“Performing makes me want to put more energy into every dance I do because I know I’m helping to raise money that’s going to go to people and charities that really need it,” Van Rensburg said. “The philanthropies give everyone there a purpose.”
On Saturday night, Tri Delta and Beta Upsilon Chi were announced as the winners of Songfest. Tri Delta received $4,000 for the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Beta Upsilon Chi received $4,000 for The Bridge Ministries, a local Christian community service organization.
Preparing for Songfest can be a long and tedious process. Communication major and Tri Delta’s Songfest chair Olivia Gonzales said the hard work put in was worth it to be able to win for their philanthropy.
“Winning feels incredible because everyone has put in so much time and hard work, so it’s nice to see that pay off,” Gonzales said. “Ultimately, we’re all incredibly grateful that we can donate so much money to our philanthropies.”