The Kent State Greek community has been lending a helping hand to other organizations on campus.

The Bateman Case Study Competition is a national competition where public relations majors create and implement public relations campaigns on their campus. This year’s competition challenged students to create a public relations plan to raise money for United Way Worldwide, a foundation that raises awareness for childhood obesity. The Bateman team at Kent State decided to partner with Campus Kitchen Project: Nutrition Outreach. The two collected canned goods as part of their program, calling on the Kent State Greek community to assist with its philanthropic needs.

“We reached out to the Greek community because they are known to help out a lot with collections like this on campus,” said Jenna Hedman, senior public relations major.

In order to motivate the Greek community, the Bateman team members decided to make the collection of canned goods a competition between all of the chapters. The winning chapter earned some extra recognition when the Bateman team painted their Greek letters on the rock on front campus.

Hedman said the Bateman team’s goal was to collect 200 cans on Saturday with the help of the fraternities and sororities. After the final tally on Saturday night, the Greek community was able to surpass the Bateman team’s goal, and 439 cans were collected.

Of the 439 cans collected, Delta Gamma sorority collected 260 cans; making them the winner of the competition.

“We tried to motivate the girls by giving them service hours, said Taylor Augustine, Delta Gamma president. “We have to complete a certain amount of service hours a semester, so any girl who donated 10 cans got one service hour.”

Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity came in second place, donating 102 cans.

Sunday, three members from the Bateman team painted the rock located on front campus. The rock adorned the Greek letters for Delta Gamma. Eleven members of the sorority also visited the rock in the afternoon to get their picture taken with the three members of the Bateman team.

The Bateman team will find out if the Greek Community’s involvement paid off when in late April, when the Bateman competition announces its three finalists for the grand prize of $2,500.

Contact Nicole Winkleman at [email protected].