The “Greekstock 2012” theme for this year’s Greek Week was a representation of unity and the tagline “Come together, Greekstock 2012” pays homage to The Beatles.

Rob Curtis, a senior kinesiology and sports studies major and a member of the Greek Week Steering Committee, said the Greekstock theme helps promote unity.

“We thought it was a good idea overall and we just made it happen,” Curtis said.

Aaron Wiessing, a senior management information systems major and a member of the Greek Week steering committee, said the idea came through a brainstorming session between himself, Curtis, and fellow Greek Week steering committee member Meghan Barrett.

Wiessing said Barrett found the idea when researching what other schools were doing for Greek Week themes.

“It’s actually a pretty popular theme that all campuses are doing,” Wiessing said. “It worked well with the theme of unity.”

Wiessing said some Greek members involved in competitions will try and work the theme into competitions such as Airband and Greek Sing.

Wiessing said the theme considered before “Greekstock” was an army-related theme. Wiessing said the committee was playing with a tagline saying “the few, the proud, the Greek,” and had designed camouflage themed items.

“This is definitely a better one we chose,” Wiessing said.

Curtis and Wiessing both said the big theme the committee is trying to bring to the event is “unity.”

“The big thing is unity, we can’t stress that enough,” Wiessing said. “We all work together to make this happen.”

Wiessing said other values the Greek community tries to show during Greek Week include sportsmanship and community service.

Wiessing said a sportsmanship award is given to a sorority and a fraternity at the end of Greek Week.

Participants also spend the day at Jefferson Elementary School as part of a service day where they engage in different fun activities with the students.

“I think it’s really important because it gives everyone a chance to come together,” Curtis said. “We do get involved and we do work hard and some of the events we do are really amazing.”

Kathryn Richter can be reached at 581-2812 or kjrichter@eiu.edu.