Fraternities and sororities rallied together to assemble care packages, make blankets and collect cans for their community service event during Greek Week on Tuesday to donate to local organizations.

“I did not honestly think there would be almost 10,000 cans here,” Megan Chafin, a junior dietetics major who helped coordinate the event, said. “It makes me really happy. I’m glad to see that people really understand that there are issues in Huntington, that there is homelessness and that we’re going to be able to help.”

The Greek community worked to collect and create different items to be donated to Harmony House and Lily’s Place, organizations which focus on ending homelessness and providing care for infants suffering from prenatal drug exposure. Since Greek Week is partly a competition, each fraternity and sorority with the most participation received points.

Participating members made blankets to be donated to Lily’s Place. While this station was only intended to make blankets, Nick Wright, the director of Fraternity and Sorority Life, said students were creative when they were running low on supplies.

“I know when we ran out of fleece to make blankets, people started making pillows and blankets out of scraps,” Wright said. “I even saw one girl making headbands. They used up everything that we bought.”

There were also stations set up where students could put together care packages for Harmony House. These packages contained items like antiperspirant, washcloths, soap and more to assist with basic hygiene.

The event was expected to last from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., but the community used up all of the supplies within roughly two hours. Taylor Foster, a senior member of Delta Zeta studying wellness education, said she believed the Greek councils were not prepared for so much participation.

“I know (Delta Zeta) had almost 100 percent of our girls here working and doing stuff,” Foster said. “PHC, IFC, and NPHC brought all of the supplies for the blankets and care packages, and I think they just weren’t expecting such a great turnout from everybody, which is so much better than not having enough people participate.”

Another station for students to work on was a thank you station to the community’s first responders. Participants put candy into different bags along with notes thanking police officers, firefighters and emergency medical personnel for their hard work.

Matthew Chapa, a junior member of Kappa Alpha Order, said he thought the experience was a good opportunity to do something for other people.

“There are a lot of people that are unfortunate and are not able to do what we are able to do,” Chapa said. “So, it’s nice to do something for someone else.”

Along with making blankets and putting together care packages, Greek Life also participated in a canned food drive. The groups that collected the most cans by 4 p.m. received points. Some organizations arrived minutes before the deadline in cars filled with canned goods.

Alpha Sigma Phi came out on top for the fraternities with over 2,800 cans. Delta Zeta had the most cans for the sororities, with roughly 1,300. By the end of the day, the fraternities and sororities were able to collect 9,454 canned goods. These cans were sorted and will be donated to Harmony House.

Sarah Ingram can be contacted at [email protected].