Delta Tau Delta (DTD) hosted its first ever philanthropy event, “Delta Queen” on Tuesday, Feb. 17 in Pollak Theater.
Delta Queen consisted of a pageant competition among five sorority girls, as well as several fundraising events that took place during the fall semester.
Stuart Rosenberg, DTD’s advisor, felt the event was successful. “I spoke with some of the Delts before and after the event and I can you that they were very pleased with the results, as I am,” Rosenberg said. “The event was the culmination of a two month long competition that Delta Tau Delta started during the fall semester that was centered around sororities competing to raise money for Juvenile Diabetes, our national philanthropy.”
The event raised over $9,000 for the newly chartered fraternity’s philanthropy, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). Anthony Serrantonio, a senior communication major and DTD’s philanthropy chair, was in charge of planning the event.
“I created the event not knowing what to expect,” said Serrantonio. “My goal going into it was to reach at least $2,000 for JDRF. I was blown away by the amount of support we received from Greek life here at Monmouth. We were able to sell so many tickets to the event and raise $9,300 for our philanthropy.”
DTD began to advertise the event last semester when the five contestants were chosen. The five contestants were Kelsey Mieczkowski from Delta Phi Epsilon, Willoe Gallagher from Alpha Sigma Tau, Amy Rosenzweig from Phi Sigma Sigma, Emily Rodrigues from Alpha Xi Delta, and Amanda Caruso from Zeta Tau Alpha. Each of the contestants and their DTD “coaches” did a photo shoot. The photos of the girls were posted on social media, and for each “like” the photos got on social media earned a point for that contestant for the Delta Queen competition.
This semester DTD did more advertising for the event. Two weeks before the event the Delts did fundraising online, and the individual sororities also donated. There was also a scavenger hunt and a banner contest, which gained the girl points toward Delta Queen. All of the money from the tickets sold for the event went directly towards JDRF.
At the Delta Queen event itself there were three rounds. The first round was the personality walk. Each girl walked out in what they felt represented them. They chose their own song, wore what they felt comfortable in, and even walked the way they wanted to. Each girl showed off her own personality.
Gallagher came out in a gold dress, Rosenzweig wore a onesie and shirt that read “swag.” Caruso was carried by her coaches, Mieczkowski wore sweatpants, and Rodrigues came out in a crown and kissed each judge on the cheek.
The next round was two “minute –to-win-it” challenges. The first challenge was called Tilt-A-Cup. The girls had to bounce a ping pong ball into a cup and then place another cup on top of the ping pong ball. This was repeated until the contestant had six cups stacked. The second challenge required the girls to tape a tissue box to their behind and then bounce eight balls out of it. The winner of both of these challenges was Gallagher.
The third and final round was the talent round. The first girl up was Caruso. She sang “Beautiful Girls” by Sean Kingston with the help of Lexi Swatt and her coaches. After her was Mieczkowski, 
who enlightened the audience by announcing that she was a CKO member and then, with the help of her coaches, demonstrated how to fight off an attacker. Gallagher came out next a sang a mash-up of “Wagon Wheel,” “Time of Your Life,” “45 Seconds,” and “Don’t Stop Believing,” also with the help of her coaches. Rodrigues came out and rapped “Bedrock,” however, she changed the words so everything related back to Delta Queen. For example, the chorus of the song was “Emmy’s gonna seal the deal.” Rosenzweig rapped with her as well about Delta Queen and JDRF. Both Rosenzweig and Rodrigues had backup dancers.
The winner of Delta Queen was Rodrigues, a junior English and elementary education major from AXiD. She explained that it “was one of the best moments of my life,” as she had wanted to be Delta Queen since homecoming.
“It was a great event and I had so much fun raising money and being with the other girls,” said Rodrigues. “Without AJ [Serrantonia] it would not have happened. He put his whole heart and soul in to it; he was always there for all the contestants.” As winner, Rodrigues received the title of “Delta Queen,” a t-shirt with DTD Delta Queen letters on it, and a $100 gift card to Massage Envy. All of the contestants received flowers.
All $9,000-plus raised by Delta Queen went to JDRF , the leading global organization for type one diabetes. The organization is looking to eliminate type one diabetes in not just juveniles but for anyone who suffers from the disease. All of the money raised goes to the foundation to fund research to find a cure. The organizations slogan is, “Make Type One Type None.”
Serrantonio said that being able to contribute so much to their philanthropy was incredible. “We are so thankful for everyone who helped out to make it the success it was,” he said.
PHOTOS COURTESY of Anthony Serrantonio
