Pi Kappa Alpha Iota Delta Chapter

Today was a day of joy and of tears as we said goodbye to the class of 2009. It is a day you wait four long years for, but when it comes, it is a bittersweet goodbye. These 36 seniors, dream girl, and 3 graduate students will be greatly missed at Iota Delta.

On May 15, the three members of the Alpha Omega class were initiated into the bonds of our brotherhood. Vincent Benini, Philip Edwards, and Larry Waters compose this small, but talented class. Following their initiation on Friday, brothers and their dates traveled to Bloomington on Saturday night to celebrate with the Alpha Omega Banquet. Highlights of the banquet included associate awards, year end awards, and the announcement of the 2009-2010 Iota Delta Dream Girl.

One Hundred members of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology’s Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity spent most of their Saturday, May 9th, completing a long list of home improvement projects to beautify their fraternity house, which is the historic Old Glenn Home. They also celebrated ground breaking on a major renovation project of one of the buildings on their grounds.

There were 17 work crews, each with a separate team leader. In addition to the projects outlined below, a ground breaking ceremony for the several hundred thousand dollar renovation of Alden Hall, a currently unoccupied 1950’s era dormitory on the grounds, occurred.

The event was covered by several local media outlets, including the Terre Haute Tribune Star, which featured the Chapter's work on page one of the Life Section in its Sunday paper: http://www.tribstar.com/archivesearch/local_story_129224757.html

Founding member Floyd Yager received Rose-Hulman’s Career Distinction Award on Saturday May 2, 2009. Floyd Yager came to Rose-Hulman in the fall of 1985 to pursue an undergraduate degree in mathematics. Twenty-four years later, Floyd came back to Rose to receive the career achievement award. His time at Rose was spent developing his leadership skills as a Sophomore Advisor and Resident Advisor, as well as being part of the founding Alpha class of the Iota Delta Chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha. Upon exiting Rose, Floyd joined Allstate Insurance, where he has spent his career so far.

On Saturday, May 2, brothers from the Iota Delta and Theta Omicron chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha "pulled" off an enormously successful Fire Truck Pull at Hulman Memorial Airfield in Terre Haute to support the Indiana Special Olympics. Four teams participated in the contest: Terre Haute Fire Department, Alpha Sigma Alpha Sorority (ISU), Pi Kappa Alpha (ISU), and Pi Kappa Alpha (Rose). Each team of twelve pulled a Terre Haute fire department truck 30 yards in a competition for the best time. Each team was given three attempts. The men of the Terre Haute Fire Department won the event by a sizable margin and were so strong that they broke the rope on their third try. The event was attend by over 150 people including numerous mothers visiting for Rose-Hulman's Mom's day.

Last week during spring break, eleven brothers drove down near Houston, TX to help the hurricane relief effort in San Leon, supported by Mercy Response. Split up into four groups, the brothers worked hard during the day while relaxing or going out at night. One group worked on Margie’s house and spent the week replacing a section of her bedroom ceiling as well as building a deck with a ramp so she could enter and exit her house easier. Another group devoted their time at Walter’s house, helping him replace a back wall that had blown out, replacing the siding on the west side of the house, and installing doors. The third group installed drywall and insulation at Laura’s house. The final group helped Butch out by doing a variety of jobs including carpeting, roofing, painting, and caulking.

Highlights during the evening include going to a Greyhound race track, watching Little League games at the park near the church in which we stayed, and visiting the Pikes at the University of Houston. Overall, the trip was a blast, plus we had the privilege to serve others. If you are interested in the current progress of the relief effort, visit their blog at http://www.msmission.blogspot.com/.

Mercy Response is a relief program that was started by Vineyard USA as a way to respond to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. In 2008, they moved from the New Orleans area to the Houston-Galveston area, making a quick stop in the Midwest to help families deal with the summer flooding.

On May 9th, 2009, the Iota Delta Chapter will be hosting our Founders Day and participating in the Pi Kappa Alpha International Workday, and as part of that day will break ground on the renovation of the currently abandoned Alden Hall. Plans have been under development for the last year to turn Alden from a vacant building into a new facility containing a Chapter Room, study rooms, dining room, kitchen, and living space for twenty or more Brothers. The final revisions to the floor plan are in progress, and they will be presented at the groundbreaking. Alden is expected to open in fall of 2010.

In the coming weeks, a new section will appear on the left side of this website where you can track the progress of the Alden renovation. Construction updates, pictures, and upcoming installments of a video documentary be posted as the renovation progresses, keeping everyone up to date on what is happening. We hope you are able to join us May 9th for the groundbreaking!

Friday, April 3 marked the start of another fight against cancer at the annual Vigo County Colleges’ Relay for Life. Held in the Rose-Hulman SRC this year, the men of Pi Kappa Alpha walked for twelve hours into the early morning of Saturday to honor and remember those loved ones lost and provide hope for current cancer patients. Over 50 brothers raised $1,700 for the event. Pike had the second most online contributions and Brother Nick Burger was included in the top five online participants. Special thanks to Brother Joe Morand for his work as our team captain and Brothers Nathan Jackson and Brandon Finan for their work on the committee. With a goal of $36,000, the event was a success, raising over $42,000.

On Saturday a group of over 30 Iota Delta Brothers helped the TREES organization at their tree planting event in Terre Haute. The Pikes, along with other volunteers from Rose-Hulman and the Terre Haute community planted over 100 trees in about 4 hours on Saturday morning. The non-profit TREES Inc. organization is dedicated to the improvement of of Terre Haute through environmental initiatives like planting trees. Pike is a proud supporter of their events, providing volunteers for their events for several years.