Joe Fawcett, president of Kappa Alpha says that his fraternity works for excellence in all areas of life. Fawcett said that this principle has helped them to win many awards this past year. On Aug. 10, 2002, the Greek chapter came home from their summer convention in New Mexico with six awards.
These awards were Academic Achievement 2001, Excellence in Fraternal Communications, Overall Excellence in Communications, Cross and Rows Award, Samuel Z. Ammen Award for chapter excellence, and the George C. Marshall Award also for chapter excellence.
The Cross and Rows Award and the George C. Marshall Award were given to only one Kappa Alpha chapter out of 126. Both of these awards were given to the Bowling Green chapter. The George C. Marshall Award can be given to three chapters, but the University’s chapter was the only to receive it for the year 2001.
Another award, the Samuel Z. Ammen Award, is only given to the top 15% of the Kappa Alpha chapters in the nation, Bowling Green’s chapter received this award also.
Fawcett said that the awards were won by the fraternity as a whole, and not as individuals. Other Kappa Alpha members agreed the awards could not have been won without a group effort.
“We worked together to achieve chapter goals as a group because one person can’t win an award by themselves,” said Mark Fleisch of the Kappa Alpha Order.
To receive the awards the fraternity submited the Marshall Application which incorporates all chapter operations. These operations include scholarship finances, risk management, project outreach, alumni affair, correspondence and all other operations year round.
The Cross and Rows Award is given to the fraternity with the most outstanding project outreach program. Kappa Alpha’s outreach program the past two years has been with the Boggy Creek Gang Camp.
The fraternity has sent 11 members to the camp in Eustis, Florida where children with chronic illnesses and their families can enjoy a weekend of camping. Kappa Alpha has raised $4,500 for the cause and enjoys giving the children and their families a normal camp environment.
“We try to make it the best weekend of their lives,” said Fawcett who spent weekend at the camp. Because of groups like Kappa Alpha, the families are not changed to go to the camp.
The chapter feels very good about winning all the awards last year and say they are working together to win them again.
Chad Carper a Kappa Alpha member said, “It feels pretty good, not just to get the trophy, but this is a reward for everything we have worked for. We all worked very hard.”
Andy Alt, an alumnus and past president of Kappa Alpha said, “We (alumni) are very proud of the fact that they picked up where founding fathers and other alumni members left off. They produced fantastic results faster than we imagined.”
Fawcett in turn credited the alumni the University’s Kappa Alpha fraternity. He said, “without the alumni we would never be able to be where we are.”
