On Monday, Oct. 5, the quad was filled with California State University, Stanislaus (Stan State) Greek organizations dressed in togas, patiently waiting at their booths to start the Greek Week opening ceremony. Greek Week is a week-long competition hosted and ran by the Stan State United Sorority and Fraternity Council (USFC), and took place from Monday, Oct. 5 through Friday, Oct. 9, when the winning teams were announced at the women’s soccer game.
USFC is composed of members from a variety of national and regional sororities and fraternities on campus. Roger Vazquez (junior, Communications) is the Special Events Chair for USFC and has worked extremely hard all week to make this event enjoyable and successful.
“I joined USFC because I wanted to get more involved on campus and create events to build the campus together,” Vazquez said.
Every national and regional Greek organization on campus was invited to participate in this week-long event. All national Sororities and Fraternities participated, along with regional organizations Alpha Pi Sigma and Omega Nu Omega.
Although the purpose behind Greek Week is to build Greek unity, one of the main goals is to raise a large amount of funds to donate straight to Jessica’s House. Jessica’s House is a grief support system for children and teens, which allows them to vocalize their feelings and cope with other kids their age.
“Raising money for charity is an important factor throughout Greek Week. I picked Jessica’s House because they have helped many families throughout their foundation” said Vazquez. This service is hosted by Emanuel Medical Center located in Turlock.
Greek organizations that participated competed in dodgeball, Greek’s Got Talent, and the Greek Olympics. There were also behind-the-scenes competitions that were designed specifically to raise money for Jessica’s House. These competitions included filling water jugs with change, a Pizza Factory fundraiser and selling Greek Week shirts. Each of these competitions gave teams a huge point advantage, but also allowed the event to raise a large amount of money.
The change-filled water jugs were located in the Student Leadership Development Office, giving teams an opportunity to rack up their points by donating pocket change. An additional 100 points was awarded to Team Athena, which consisted of organizations Kappa Sigma and Phi Sigma Sigma, for having the best decorated jar. 
During the week, Greek organizations were encouraged to post Instagram pictures with members from other organizations in order to gain extra points. The pictures had to contain a member from another team and have Stan State USFC tagged with your team in the hashtag.
On Wednesday, Oct. 7, Team Athena brought home the most points during Greek’s Got Talent. This event required each team to choreograph a creative skit following the theme of their assigned Greek god and their mythology. The skit had to be between five and seven minutes long and contain a minimum of 15 team members. Each team had creative dance moves and costumes to show off, modeled after their team’s Greek god.
“The best part was definitely having everyone’s support right by my side amongst my team, making it an unforgettable experience,” Team Athena member Sara Singh (sophomore, Biology) said.
The Greek Olympics were hosted the following day, Oct. 8, at the Pergola Meadows. All teams were required to have 10 members participating in events such as a wheel barrow race, popping balloons with your stomach, throwing a football through a hula hoop and using only a sponge to get enough water to fill an entire bucket. By the end of the event, each team was soaked with water and out of breath from all the games.
“The sponge water bucket game was actually pretty fun and exciting because we got to work together as a team to try to figure out good strategies and fill up the bucket,” Team Zeus member Brianna Chaffey (sophomore, Psychology) said.
After a week full of staying up all night practicing skits, wearing togas around campus and filling water jugs full of money to donate, the Greek Week winners were announced. Although all teams gave an enormous effort, Team Athena took home the first place trophy, Team Apollo (Alpha Xi Delta, Alpha Pi Sigma, Tau Kappa Epsilon) took second, and Team Zeus (Phi Mu, Omega Nu Omega, Theta Chi) followed in third.
Team Athena’s Kappa Sigma representative, Justin Lavender (junior, Computer Science), contributed the team’s win to their ability to work together.
“We got our best dancers, athletes, Greek connoisseurs, pizza eaters, Instagrammers and everybody that was down to work, to win,” Lavender said.