Sororities and fraternities volunteered their time during Greek Week to help the community through letter writing and donations.

Chapters participated in a letter-writing event, “Up till Dawn,” for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

“Community service is the most important of Greek Week,” said Jeanne Dolan, a senior elementary education major and member of Kappa Delta.

During the event, chapters wrote letters to family members and friends requesting donations for St. Jude.

“The letter writing is the kick-off for Greek Week,” Dolan said.

A family gave a presentation about their personal experience of St. Jude and a sorority gave a presentation about St. Jude as well, Dolan said.

The event took place from 6 to 10 p.m. Monday in the University Ballroom in the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.

Dolan is a member of the community service committee, which was created to help organize and plan volunteering events during Greek Week.

Other members of the committee are Nick Persin, a senior journalism major and member of Sigma Phi Epsilon, and Jenna Wright, a senior secondary education major and member of Alpha Sigma Alpha.

The community service committee has been working closely with Lexi Fiedler, event marking representative of St. Jude, Dolan said.

The chapters are also donating money and toys to St. Jude and the Children’s Advocacy Center of East Central Illinois, she said.

The Children’s Advocacy Center provides “services to child victims of sexual and/or physical abuse and to their non-offending family member in Clark, Coles, Cumberland, Douglas, Edgar, Moultrie, and Shelby counties,” according to its mission statement.

“We wanted to donate to a local organization,” Dolan said.

The center operates only from donations and needs items such as paper and pens for their office, Dolan said.

The community service committee has been working closely with Pat Riddle, the director of the Children’s Advocacy Center.

The community service committee said the local community has been supportive of Greek Week and their community service initiatives.

Elizabeth Edwards can be reached at eaedwards@eiu.edu