Anyone looking for an evening of entertainment was sure to find it last Tuesday at Gamma Phi Beta sorority’s annual Gamma Phi-Oke Karaoke fundraiser. Open to all students, the event was held in Davis Auditorium from 6-9 p.m. and included performances from one of DU’s a cappella groups, the Idiosingcracies and members of Greek Life.
Money from this event will go to Gamma Phi Beta’s current philanthropy, Girls Incorporation of Metro Denver.
“Their [Girls Inc. of Metro Denver] mission is to create smart, bold girls,” said freshman Marketing and Emerging Digital Practices major Alana Dreimann, who is the Philanthropy Chair and organized this year’s event. “Our philanthropy in general with Gamma Phi is any philanthropy that builds strong girls and we worked with them last year as well.”
So far, they have raised $2,029 not including the chapters of Greek Life who chose to donate more money, according to Dreimann.
Last year, Gamma Phi Beta raised $1,226.45 for the Girls Incorporation of Metro Denver, according to sophomore Biology major and Financial Vice President Alisa Phillips.
“We’re hoping to raise a few thousand dollars [this year] once the money from Greek Life is counted,” said Dreimann.
Idiosingcracies started off the show and performed two songs and then there was an open-mic portion with three different performances. Following this was the main event, karaoke. There were 12 different karaoke performances from groups of Sigma Chi, Beta Theta Pi, Lambda Chi Alpha, Delta Gamma, Zeta Beta Tau and one group that was not affiliated with Greek life.
With high-energy performances and engaged audience members, the groups had organized costumes and choreography.
“It was really funny, it was a great event because everyone was so dressed up and had different performances,” said Dreimann.
One group performed a song from Disney’s “The Lion King” and another did a song from “Mulan.”
The majority of performances were from fraternities but there was one group of eight Delta Gamma girls who performed “Want U Back” by Cher Lloyd. There was even a solo performance of “Wagon Wheel” by Old Crow Medicine Show.
According to one performer, sophomore Sarah Sutin from Delta Gamma Sorority, the performances were carefree. Sutin performed with five other girls and she helped choreograph the dance.
“We were just having fun with it— [Eliya] and I choreographed the dance a few days before and then we taught it to the girls a couple of hours before,” said Sutin.
The winners of Gamma Phi-Oke were a group from Beta Theta Pi fraternity, who performed “Cruise” by Florida Georgia Line. Delta Gamma sorority got second place with “Want U Back” by Cher Lloyd and a group from Zeta Beta Tau received third place for their performance of “Look At Me Now” by Chris Brown. The winning group of Beta Theta Pi performers received a $100 cash prize as a group, which came out of Gamma Phi Beta’s budget.
The judges of the performances were three house-mothers, or chaperones, from the Gamma Phi Beta and Delta Gamma Sororities and the Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity. This year, the judging was different for the performances.
“In the past we had all the judges write down comments and they deliberated at the end and they picked the winners and this year we gave them five categories to scale from one to 10 so it was appearance, vocal ability, choreography and things like that and we tallied all the scores up at the end,” said Dreimann.
Gamma Phi Beta sold tickets in advance for $5 and then $7 at the door and each group paid a $35 fee to perform. “We appreciate all the support that we got from DU this past week,” said Phillips. “Our philanthropy does mean a lot and its amazing that so many people wanted to support that.”
