Fraternity members displayed their synchronized swimming skills for charity in HPER Wednesday night.
The annual Anchor Splash competition was part of the Delta Gamma sorority’s Philanthropy week, which also included a casino night and a barbeque earlier in the week.
“Anchor Splash is a synchronized swimming event that the fraternity gentleman compete in,” said Alex Clark, the Delta Gamma director of Anchor Splash and a sophomore in strategic communications. “They get as many people from their house to participate and they put together a synchronized swimming act that’s based on Delta Gamma pride, University of Utah pride, and fraternity pride,”
Pi Kappa Alpha won this year’s competition.
“I had a great time, it was a lot of fun,” said Dean Kompchok, one of the members of Pi Kappa Alpha and a freshman in biomedical engineering.
Alexis Sakellariou, the Delta Gamma coach for Pi Kappa Alpha and a sophomore in business said practice conditions were not ideal.
“Our last practice was in the freezing cold water of an outside pool. It was freezing and they never complained so it was nice that their hard work and sacrifice paid off,” Sakellariou sai.d
Even with the amount of fun participants had, they still were able to keep it safe.
“They were generally pretty calm about it. They didn’t do anything that was too bad. Overall they did a good job of not making it too big of a deal,” said Zach Rezk, a lifeguard at the pool and a freshman in physical sciences
Delta Gamma donates all proceeds from Philanthropy Week to Service for Sight.
“Service for Sight prevents blindness in Utah and the rest of the country. Every Delta Gamma chapter in the country donates to Service for Sight,” Clark said.
Anchor Splash concluded philanthropy week for Delta Gamma as the car wash was put on hold because of weather. Clark says that the sorority raised over $4,000 but will end up donating just over $2,000 to Service for Sight due to the expenses incurred during the week.
Casino Night kicked off the week’s events on Monday.
Clark says the fundraising goal for the casino night was $1,000.
Not only did students that participated during the week help the blind, but they had a great time as well.
“I think it’s great, I’m having a lot of fun. Meeting a lot of cool people and I will definitely attend some of the other philanthropy events this week,” said Zach Henenger, an undeclared freshman during the casino night.
Games at the makeshift casino included blackjack and Texas Hold Em’
Tuesday during philanthropy week saw a barbeque. $5 bought as many burgers and drink as attendees could consume.