Members of Delta Zeta, Phi Gamma Pi, Sigma Phi Epsilon and Phi Sigma Gamma perform various ’90s pop songs at Songfest 2006 on Saturday in the Ballroom. Sororities and fraternities sang and danced to different genres of music to fundraise for charities. AR

Credit: Carl Schierhorn

Costumes, choreography and ever-present jazz hands were all part of the Inter-Greek Programming Board’s annual fundraiser, Songfest, which brought the entire Greek community together to raise money for Akron Children’s Hospital.

Songfest raised approximately $4,500 for Akron Children’s Hospital, which is $1,500 more than the event has ever raised, said Jessica Lane, junior communications studies major and coordinator of the event. All money will be donated to the hospital.

For the event, which took place Saturday in the Student Center Ballroom, each sorority on campus was paired with two to three fraternities. Each team was assigned a genre of music based on this year’s theme, “What Genre Are You?”, and performed three songs within their given category. Three judges evaluated teams on their singing ability, choreography, costumes and creativity.

“It’s been a lot of fun preparing for it,” said Daniel Rubin, sophomore justice studies major, before the competition began. “It was a lot of hard work, though, and a lot of time.”

As a result of that work, Rubin’s fraternity, Alpha Epsilon Pi, and its partner chapters, Chi Omega sorority and Delta Tau Delta and Sigma Nu fraternities, took home first place honors for the night.

They performed their genre, ’80s rock, wearing taffeta prom dresses and mullet wigs. Their song selections included Madonna’s “Get Into the Groove” and The Romantics’ “What I Like About You.”

“The energy is great and the concept is really good,” said Mark Shottland, whose daughter Rebecca is a member of Chi Omega. Shottland and his wife, Jeanne, traveled six hours from Westfield, N.J., to watch their daughter perform at Songfest.

“It’s a fun time; a fun evening,” Shottland said. “It was worth the trip.”

Other crowd favorites were Delta Zeta and Phi Gamma Pi sororities, paired with Sigma Phi Epsilon and Phi Sigma Gamma fraternities. The second-place team celebrated their genre, ’90s pop, through recreating MTV’s “Total Request Live.” They performed their final song, 2Gether’s “U + Me = Us (Calculus),” wearing shirts with mathematical symbols on them, which garnered a large crowd response.

Delta Gamma sorority and Sigma Chi fraternity came in third place with their disco-themed performance, featuring afro wigs and sequined bell-bottoms.

The Ballroom was packed with Greeks, their friends and their family members.

“It’s really nice to see some non-Greeks out here, to see that we’re more than just partiers. We do good things for the community, too,” Lane said.

In the past, the Inter-Greek Programming Board raised money by selling raffle tickets, but new gambling rules prevented them from doing so this year, Lane said. Instead, chapter members sold Akron Children’s Hospital “Miracle Balloons” and silicone bracelets.

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