HIGH POINT, N.C., Nov. 12, 2014 – Helping High Point.
That’s the title and the mission of the philanthropy that the Beta Theta Pi fraternity of High Point University has established. Focused on serving the community in which they reside, the brothers recently spent a week giving back to the city in a big way through several events.
“What our philanthropy entails is focusing on where High Point could use a helping hand, whether it is tutoring elementary students in an after-school program or delivering phone books to a section of the community,” says Will Trimble, chapter president. “This overarching name of ‘Helping High Point’ allows us to make the maximum amount of good for a large range of people.”
Throughout their annual philanthropy week, held Nov. 3-7, the brothers assisted with the adoption fair at the Guilford County Animal Shelter, tutored children in reading and math at the Macedonia Family Resource Center, and held percentage-based fundraisers at East Coast Wings and Chipotle that benefitted the animal shelter, Macedonia and a local food bank. Finally, a canned food drive on campus collected cans of non-perishable items to be donated to food banks in the area.
Nick Bellamy, Beta Theta Pi’s vice president of programming, said that it’s important to give back to the local community.
“We want to help the greater High Point community grow as the university grows, and also give kids the best opportunity they can to excel in school,” Bellamy said.
Gabriel Brown, a freshman at High Point Central High School, enjoyed interacting with the HPU fraternity brothers at Macedonia. He says he wants to attend HPU when he graduates in 2018, and is looking forward to visiting campus to perform with his school’s chorus in a few weeks.
“High Point University is a great school and has amazing opportunities. When our chorus comes to campus to sing in December, we’re going to have a fun time rocking the stage,” Brown said.
“For each of these children at Macedonia, it only takes one person – one interaction – to change their life,” said Amy Hudson, program director at Macedonia and 2014 graduate of HPU. “Because of High Point University students who volunteer their time here, the children are exposed to a different set of mannerisms, and they will all do better on their EOGs because of this tutoring.”
Hudson first worked with family resource center while she was a student as part of a service learning project through her “REL 2015: Faith and Ethics” class at HPU.
“It’s not just about teaching these children how to read,” she adds. “They’re also taught how to be polite from HPU students. They’re taught life skills. Every time someone from HPU comes, we see a difference in somebody, and it makes a huge difference.”