The second annual Miss Phiota pageant raised more than $1,000 to help bring clean water to Latin American countries.

Phi Iota Alpha hosted its philanthropy Friday night in the Kiva to raise money for UNICEF, United Nations Children’s Fund, which helps raise money to bring clean water to countries that don’t have it.

Jose Cortez, president of Phi Iota Alpha, said his fraternity tried to plan ahead and advertise the event more to help increase fundraising this year.

“A lot of things are different this year: We have more participants and sold more tickets,” Cortez said. “Our specific funds that we raise for UNICEF go to Latin America countries, so we want to give back as much as we can.”

The Miss Phiota pageant had 10 participants, and the night consisted of five rounds.

In the first round, contestants modeled evening gowns. Each participant gave a short speech on why she wanted to be Miss Phiota 2015 in the second round, and the ladies took turns presenting a talent for the third round. To finish, contestants did a question and answer session and had to know a fraternity fact.

After the five rounds, there was a short intermission so that the judges could vote on who they think should be the next Miss Phiota. The audience could also vote on who would be the “People’s Choice” winner — the crowd’s favorite.

After the audience and judges voted, the winner of Miss Phiota and the People’s choice award was given to Kaylee Peterson from Chi Omega.

Peterson sang “Fever” by Peggy Lee as her talent. She said it meant a lot to her to win both awards and to have the support of the Phiotas and the audience.

“The more I learned about this fraternity the more I wanted to get involved,” Peterson said. “I agreed with a lot of the values they had like strength, integrity and friendship because that is something Chi Omega stands for as well.”

At the end of the night, Phi Iota Alpha announced that they raised more than $1,000 for UNICEF. Two members from the KSU UNICEF chapter were able to hear the announcement and were also handing out further information on the organization.

Carolyn Reisdorff, member of the KSU UNICEF chapter, said the club works on educating, advocating and fundraising for UNICEF, and this month specifically they are fundraising for world water.

“It was really fun to come out here tonight and see so many people care about this cause,” Reisdorff said. “It was also a great opportunity for us to get the word out that we have a UNICEF club on Kent State’s campus.”

Contact Zabrina Hvostal at [email protected].