Sigma Nu sheds clothes to support breast cancer

Nicole Gennarelli
September 26, 2010

Brothers of the Sigma Nu fraternity will shed their pants all week to help raise money in order to fight breast cancer.

The annual fundraiser starts today and will be taking place to bring awareness to the cause. The guys will be wearing anything but pants all week, including hula skirts and spandex shorts.

The list of events includes Hot Shot Basketball on Monday, a presentation on women’s heart health Tuesday, movie night at the Sigma Nu mansion Wednesday and a barbeque Thursday. These fundraisers are open to everyone on campus, not just the Greek community.

Dominic Parisi, president of Sigma Nu, and Matt Fabinak, director of No Pants Week, said the theme of the week is pink. All the money raised is for breast cancer awareness and will be donated to the Northern Ohio Breast Cancer Coalition Fund.

“We found a breast cancer organization that provides psychiatric treatment to help deal with the conditions,” said Fabinak. “It has group settings to discuss what’s happening, how it’s affecting your life and the day-to-day struggles. We chose this organization so that we can have a greater influence on the area that we live in.”

The planning of “No Pants Week” was a team effort of all the brothers in the fraternity. It usually takes place during the spring semester. Changing it to the fall meant planning started over the summer.

“We started the preliminary talks for planning a fall No Pants Week at the end of No Pants Week last spring,” said Parisi. “It was a successful week, but we really felt like it could have been taken to a whole other level if we did it in the fall. We’re the first philanthropy this year for the Greek system and hopefully that will show in numbers and participation.”

The reason for switching No Pants Week to the fall was because in the spring, people in the Greek community have many different events going on. They are donating lots of money and time to different philanthropies.

“After a while still being college students, Greek aside, it starts to take its toll on you and you become stretched kind of thin,” Parisi said. “Our academics always come first. We’re Greek second and we’re in school first.”

The fraternity worked with their executive board and other members to come up with new ideas for this semester’s fundraiser. They thought about what worked in the past, what they could make better and what new events they could add.

The Hot Shot Basketball event is 70s-themed with the guys wearing old-school basketball attire. They will be in Risman plaza sporting short shorts, high socks and headbands.

The women’s heart health presentation on Tuesday will be sponsored by The American Heart Association.

“The focus (of the presentation) is going to be the women of Kent State and how they can stay healthy,” Parisi said. “There’s a difference between how women can take care of their heart and stay healthy and how men can.”

The Nu-vie night will have a 50-foot blow up screen at the Sigma Nu mansion for people to come over, watch a couple movies, eat some food and have a good time.

“This is just a relaxing night to show our appreciation for everyone who has participated in the philanthropy so far,” Fabinak said.

To wrap up the week, Sigma Nu will host a barbeque at the mansion Thursday evening.

Parisi said this week is extremely important to the fraternity. The fraternity encourages anyone and everyone to participate because the money is going to a good cause.

“We’re hoping it’s a huge successful week; it has been in the past,” Parisi said. “This week we really feel like we’ve taken things to another level, that the whole week will just be a circus at Kent State trying to raise awareness and money for breast cancer research.”