Why Fighting Like a Girl Can Be a Good Thing!

Ali Kemp was a lifeguard at a neighborhood pool in Kansas City. While life guarding one day, she was brutally murdered in the pool house. As a result of this tragedy, her family vowed to do everything in their power to make sure that would never happen to another woman. The solution: The Ali Kemp Educational Foundation (TAKE). The foundation teaches self-defense to women and girls so that they will be aware of how to protect themselves in violent situations.

Ali's father and brother were both members of Sigma Phi Epsilon while attending college. In 2007, Sigma Phi Epsilon adopted TAKE foundation as a national philanthropy. Since then, the Sig Ep chapter at Pitt State has teamed up with my Tri Sigma chapter to raise money for the foundation.

Because Ali was buried in her prom dress, we host a prom fashion show in honor of her and offer a free self defense class for all of the girls and women in attendance immediately following the show. This year we doubled our attendance and money raised for the foundation and look forward to seeing continued growth.

My job each year is to help with promoting the event, and I also take on the male side of the fashion show. Each year, several Sig Eps volunteer to escort the models on the runway and show off the latest fashion in tuxes. I am in charge of getting them fitted and helping them during the show. I had the pleasure of working with these gentelmen this year. Lucky for me, they are some of my best friends, which made it even more fun!
Sigmas volunteer to model the dresses. This year over 60 different dresses and styles were modeled. The ladies looked so beautiful!
Ali's father, Roger Kemp, joined us the day of the fashion show and was able to share his story along with some words of encouragement. It was empowering to meet him and hear the things he had to say and the heart he has for helping others.
Then the girls strutted their stuff! They did such an awesome job! We even made the school paper!