Tau Kappa Epsilon Hosts Second Annual “Dancing With TKE” Event
Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity hosted their second annual “Dancing with TKE” event in Pollak Theatre on Tuesday, March 20.
The vision of TKE is to create “lifelong relationships that enhance educational, interpersonal, community and professional success.” Their mission is “to aid men in their mental, moral, and social development for life.” Their purpose on campus “contributes to the advancement of society though the personal growth of our members, and service to others.”
The event began around 10:30 pm. Before the event, Matthew Avellino, Philanthropy Chair of TKE said he expected a big turnout. “So far we have raised over $400,” said Avellino. “We’ve been selling tickets in the Dining Hall and over 100 people responded ‘attending’ to our Facebook event page.” It is Avellino’s first year as TKE’s philanthropy chair. Tickets were five dollars in advance and seven dollars at the door. All of the proceeds go to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.
The hosts of the event were TKE member Dave Kunze, and Zeta Tau Alpha sorority member Marie Worsham. “It’s my first time hosting this event,” said Kunze. “We (TKE) actually nominated people who we thought would make good hosts and I was lucky enough to be nominated by my fraternity brothers.”
Patrick Swisher, freshman, and member of Sigma Tau Alpha, participated as a performer in this event with his fraternity chapter because, “It seemed like fun, I thought it would be interesting.”
TKE got members of Greek life to participate in this event by asking other Greek organizations for support. “Everyone is really supportive of each other in the Greek senate,” said Avellino. “Just talking to the Presidents of fraternities and asking their brothers to rally and come out for us.” TKE promoted this event through flyers, e-mail and their Facebook event page.
Kaitlyn Cassidy, sophomore, performed a solo dance number for the event. “I’m anxious,” said Cassidy. “I’ve been dancing my whole life, but it’s weird. People from school have never seen me dance.”
“We came to this event to support our fraternity ‘brother’ Katelyn Walsh,” said Jamie Petraglia, Alpha Kappa Psi (Co-ed fraternity) member. “We also wanted to get involved in the Greek community and show our support for other organizations,” said Andrea Gilroy, Alpha Kappa Psi member.
There were five judges and among them was last years winner of “Dancing with TKE,” Mike Kumar who started off the evening by showing the audience some of his moves.
The second act was a group of fraternity brothers who did a group dance to “We No Speak Americano” by Yolanda Be Cool.
The third act was a group dance by the sisters of ZTA, who danced to a mix of songs followed by a dance number by Kaitlyn Cassidy.
Act four was a group of Theta Xi fraternity brothers who danced to a Backstreet Boys song.
Act five was just introduced as “Corey” and performed to a song collaboration by Jay-Z and Kanye West.
The final act was a group of fraternity brothers from TKE who sang and performed to “The Lazy Song” by Bruno Mars.
First place consisted of a $45 gift certificate to Outback Steakhouse, along with other prizes and went to Corey. The second place prize winner was Cassidy, who won four free appetizers at Buffalo Wild Wings, a $20 gift certificate to Juniors West End, a $20 gift certificate as well as four free appetizers at Joes Crab Shack. Third Place went to the fraternity brothers of Theta Xi who won three free appetizers at Buffalo Wild Wings, and a Chipotle gift certificate.
PHOTO COURTESY of Brian Newman
