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!

Winter Wonderland!

The end of fall semester kept me super busy and I am just now calming down to update everyone on my crazy life! During the last week of school, University Student Ambassadors held our last meeting of the semester with a tacky Christmas sweater theme! It was fun to see everyone out of their ambassador polos and in some funky outfits for a change. We feasted on cookies and hot cocoa, and finished our semester business before heading out on our winter break.
I got to spend some time with friends and family at home but then headed back to Pittsburg on New Years day to load up in a carpool, destination Denver, Colorado! Campus Crusade for Christ hosts an annual event called the Denver Christmas Conference. Crusade students from Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Oklahoma, Colorado, and New Mexico all join together for a week of fun and fellowship! This year Pitt State made up 10 of the 2,000 students in attendance. One of the days we were there, we had an opportunity to go out and serve the community. My group got to paint a stairwell and hallway for an elderly woman that could not do it for herself. Below is a picture of us with our finished masterpiece!
This year's theme for the conference was Glory. We were also lucky enough to catch a little winter wonderland glory on one of the last days of the conference. It snowed all day the last two days which made for some fun snowball fights in the courtyards outside of our hotel.
On the last night of the conference is a $5 prom. That means everything you wear must come out of your suitcase, or cost you less than $5. Lauren and I managed to make some semi tacky outfits to fit in with the crazy costumes everyone created. I think our hair was the best part of the whole ensemble!
As soon as I returned from Denver, I was back in action in Pittsburg. As Vice President of Student Activities Council, I am in charge of recruitment and training. Each semester I host a large training event for the executive council. I host smaller training events each month for all members. Our executive council can be pretty crazy at times, but our retreat to kick off the spring reassured me that we have a fun-filled semester ahead of us!