[“Did I Hear You Say You Love Me” by Stevie Wonder]
On Friday, April 25th, stepping into Northwestern’s Black House meant being welcomed by the sounds of ’70s R&B and the presence of the finer women of the Nu Sigma Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated, as they hosted their first service event since reactivating on campus this March.
GLORIETTA ARTHORO: My name is Glorietta Arthoro. I’m a third-year in Weinberg, and I am president of the Nu Sigma chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Incorporated at Northwestern.
How did this event come to be?
ARTHORO: This event came to be through our lovely soror, Ava. She already had all the supplies and everything and it was a simple event.
AVA WADE-CURRIE: I’m Ava Wade-Curry and I am the vice president of the Nu Sigma chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Incorporated at Northwestern University. This is our first service event that we’ve done so far. We didn’t know what we wanted to do because we like don’t have like a lot of funding yet cause we like just started. So like it was harder to do like a bake sale or something like that. We kinda just wanted to do something simple because we all have, like, really busy schedules, so something where people could just drop in and do something.
And so, the Nu Sigma Cardmaking Event was born. From 1 to 5 p.m., visitors could stop by the Quibbler Room in the Black House to create cards for a nonprofit organization called Cards for Hospitalized Kids, which distributes handmade cards to children’s hospitals and Ronald McDonald Houses across all 50 states.
WADE-CURRIE: I’ve held a card making event before for my fencing team, so I already had all the stuff. So I was like, “We should do card making,” and it’s really simple and really easy, and then people can just like come in and draw, and it’s, like, a bunch of fun if you’re, like, a creative person.
With the idea in place, the next step was getting the word out.
ARTHORO: We promoted the event through GroupMe and through our Instagrams and like our personals as well.
Which caught the attention of Medill sophomore Tiffany Jackson-Felicien:
TIFFANY JACKSON-FELICIEN: I found out about this event through the Zeta Instagram, and I was just scrolling through my Instagram feed and I saw it and I was like, “This is really interesting.”
Much to the organizers’ surprise, the event drew a strong turnout.
WADE-CURRIE: I actually wasn’t expecting anyone to come, um so I’m really happy that people came and are, like, making cards and, like, making a bunch of cards too.
ARTHORO: Honestly, because of the weather, I was not expecting the turnout that we got. People came here in, like, the pouring rain, and when they came, they stayed for a long time and made so many cards. So I’m so happy for everyone that came.
But the rain couldn’t keep Jackson-Felicien from an opportunity to give back.
JACKSON-FELICIEN: I decided to come because this is actually something very similar I used to do in high school — so we used to make cards for hospitalized kids all the time and also it’s just really good community service, which I love to do.
Beyond just giving back, the event also offered the chance to build new connections.
WADE-CURRIE: Frankly, this is my third time in the Black House, so I’m actually meeting a lot of people today, but yeah, it’s fun to come together with people, especially when it’s kind of crummy outside, and like do stuff with friends or make new friends.
Still, community service remained the heart of the event.
WADE-CURRIE: Doing good in the world is always amazing, and for this organization specifically, like they post the kids getting the cards on their Instagram. So imagine like you can see like a kid holding your card that you made and like smiling with a really big smile.
The chapter plans to continue hosting service events in the future.
ARTHORO: We’ll be doing a lot more service events like collaborating with a lot of like the Northwestern community coming up. So just come and show up and support the community.
For WNUR News, I’m Karrah Toatley.
[“Did I Hear You Say You Love Me” by Stevie Wonder]
