Anyone who’s seen the movie Dodgeball knows how intense the game can be, but it’s not an activity generally associated with fundraising. That didn’t matter to the Greek community, who played themed dodgeball and participated in other events throughout last week’s annual Greek Week to raise money in support of the American Cancer Society.

During Greek Week, fraternities and sororities competed against one another in various events. The winning chapters of each event garnered points toward the overall score of the week. The Greek Week winners, one fraternity and one sorority, will be announced at closing ceremonies on Sunday evening.

Aside from dodgeball, the week consisted of a blood drive, a talent show, a trivia bowl and multiple sporting events. The week culminated in Relay for Life, which each fraternity and sorority participated in and raised money for throughout the week.

Greek Week Chairwoman Theresa Musser said she worked hard to inject enthusiasm into the much-anticipated week, which in past years typically followed an unchanging schedule of events. In the past, the Greek community hosted a speaker of some sort on Wednesdays, but Musser decided to remove this event.

“I wanted to keep the momentum up for the rest of the week,” she said. Instead of a speaker, she organized themed dodgeball, where chapters competed against one another dressed in costumes of their choice. The winners, Phi Kappa Tau fraternity and Alpha Xi Delta sorority, dressed as characters from “Baywatch” and the board game Candyland, respectively.

“It was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Musser said of the game. “The guys (from Phi Kappa Tau) had sunscreen on their faces and everything.”

Aaron Street, president of Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity, said his favorite parts of Greek Week were the talent show and Friday’s basketball game.

“In each event there was a lot of enthusiasm,” said Street, a junior marketing major. “I thought this was the best Greek Week out of the three that I’ve participated in.”

Street, who participated in Relay for Life in the past, said he enjoyed seeing so many people participate to raise money for a good cause.

Because Relay for Life ended the week, Musser chose the American Cancer Society as the week’s overall charitable organization.

The Greek community also hosted Penny Wars all week long, setting up tables in the Student Center where Greeks donated pennies to raise money for their chapter’s Relay for Life team. To increase competition, nickels, dimes and quarters donated to other teams’ collections counted as negative points for that chapter.

“We had shopping carts full of pennies,” Musser said. “We took the pennies to the Coinstar at Giant Eagle (to count them), and we jammed Coinstar. It was full. It couldn’t take any more pennies.”

Although the money is still being counted, Musser said that the Penny Wars competition alone raised more than $1,500.

Alpha Xi Delta and Alpha Phi sororities did a majority of their Relay for Life fundraising online. Both sororities raised more than $3,000 through online donations.

Contact Greek life reporter Kate Bigam at [email protected].