Club Corner

This Wednesday, December 13th, we are holding our B-term Open Meeting! Swing by the Wedge on Wednesday from 6PM on for movies, crafts, pizza and drinks, and lots of socializing. We hope to see everyone there, including new faces. Everyone is welcome!

This Christmas season, be sure to remember the greatest gift of all, Jesus Christ, the reason behind the season. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood (Romans 3:25). Yay God! CBf is wrapping up the term with three events this week. We have Tuesday Night Prayer (Founders 204, 9:30), Turkey at Tim's (e-mail tdresser@wpi.edu for details), and our annual CBF Christmas Party on Friday (e-mail cbf@wpi.edu for more details). I pray that God, out of his abundant grace, may grant you the endurance and clarity of mind to finish up the term well, all for the glory of God.

This week we are continuing our Christmas Tree Giving Project for Youville House. If you want to be a part of this project and give a Christmas gift to a battered child, be in touch with Jason Field (fielder@wpi.edu). Jason has the name and age of each child at Youville House and will be happy to share that information with anyone. We ask that you limit the amount of your gift to no more than a fifteen dollars.

Our Executive Board met this past Wednesday night, December 6th at 9:00 PM in the Religious Center and we planned our activities for Terms C and D.

On Sunday, December 17th we will have our Annual Christmas Mass at 10:00 PM in Alden. After Mass we are having our Annual Christmas Party at the Religious Center.

Remember all of the above activities are open to non-members as well as members. Please feel free to join us.

Since this is the last column before vacation, we take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy and holy Christmas. Hopefully we will see all of you next term. Watch for the first edition of Tech News in the year 2001 for all our Term C activities.

Today marks the last meeting of this session of the WPI Student Government Association, and winter break will mark the transition between the senators and executives of this year and those of next year that were elected in the last few weeks. The next Senate session will meet during the calendar year 2001. I wanted to recognize a lot of the people that have made this session a very successful and energetic one. The other executives of SGA this year have been Rachel Bowers, Vice President; Brian Sperlongano, Secretary; and Kevin Dickert, Treasurer. SGA had a number of Senators serving as committee chairs as well. Joe O'Boyle served as the chairperson of the Committee on Academic Issues. Samantha O'Connor and Lakee Smith headed the Committee on Student Life Issues. Julie Cerquiera chaired the Committee on Elections. Chris O'Malley and Rob Pantazelos co-chaired the Committee on Policies and Procedures. Melissa St. Hilaire led the Committee on Public Relations. Finally, of course, there are more than thirty other Senators that have put a tremendous amount of energy into making this year the best possible. Next year's executives are the following persons: Rachel Bowers, President; Janelle Smith, Vice President; Brian Sperlongano, Secretary; Chris O'Malley, Treasurer.

It is difficult to overstate how much it matters to an organization such as SGA to have such talented members donating their time and energy. This year went very well, and it was due to the efforts of these SGA members. SGA made progress in several areas, including academic and social issues on campus. This progress will obviously continue into next year, especially with the involvement of newly-elected SGA members. With the opening of the campus center and other issues that will arise, SGA will definitely not be short of things to do. SGA and other organizations are always looking for new people, so if you are not involved in an organization I would encourage you to find one. Next year will be an exciting year, and being directly involved with the shaping of the school's future will make it even more so.

This week we made snowflakes to contribute to the Holiday Extravaganza that is put on every year by the SGA. We discussed having a holiday party and set the date for Thursday, December 14, from 9:30-10:30 in the Goddard Lounge. We will be having donuts and cookies and other fun things. In C term we will be arranging field trips to go see the Crime lab and BASF. Our next meeting will be after break.

The Worcester County Food Bank, located on Rte. 9 in Shrewsbury, supplies central Massachusetts shelters and soup kitchens with food and household items. These shelters and soup kitchens then distribute the food to the needy residents of central Massachusetts. The food back is constantly receiving food donations from major supermarkets as well as private individuals or charitable organizations.

All of this incoming food must be checked for damaged or unusable products, and sorted into food and household categories. The household items (i.e. toilet paper, paper towels, zip-lock bags) are packaged separately. The food items are then further subdivided and sorted into specific categories before being repackaged and sent out.

This is no easy task as the food bank receives tons of food per day. However the Fiji brothers were up to the challenge. They volunteered in excess of 320 hours sorting and repackaging food during A-term. Philanthropy chair, Greg LaCamera said, "This community service project was such a success that we plan to continue it during the rest of the year. We sorted and repackaged the food so fast that the supervisor, Mandy Fitzgerald, told us to slow down." All of the brothers of Phi Gamma Delta felt that the community service was something that everyone could benefit from.

Many people have negative perceptions of Greek life. With community service projects such as this our house hopes to change these perceptions. We have always tried to give back to the community that fosters it.