It’s the morning of Carnegie Mellon’s annual Greek Sing event. In just a few hours, Oakland’s Soldiers & Sailors Hall will fill with students, alumni, families, and friends pumped to watch Carnegie Mellon’s fraternities and sororities take the stage. For this Saturday evening, and for the months leading up to it, more than 500 students from 13 Greek houses have stepped outside of their everyday routines to become lighting designers, set painters, performers, and the like, spending their free hours in rehearsals and builds to prepare for the competition. Tonight, the premieres of their original 13-minute musicals will compete for one of the coveted performance trophies.

That’s Greek Sing at a first glance. However, the event is also a powerhouse charity event, and the philanthropic aspect of the competition can outshine even the glitziest of musical numbers. At least, hosts and event chairs Harold Kim (DC’12) and Jake Yosafat (TPR’12) think so, which is why they’re worried. As chairs, they had to keep track of each chapter’s fundraising efforts and serve as the liaisons between the Greek community and its chosen charity, The Children’s Institute—a Pittsburgh center for children with special needs.

To start, Yosafat and Kim set an ambitious donation goal: $45,000, an increase from the previous year’s $42,000 final tally. In the months and final weeks leading up to the big event, Greek chapters hosted barbecues and all-you-can-eat nights, reached out to local businesses, and appealed to friends and family for donations. But on the Tuesday before the Saturday performance, only $28,000 had been raised. A call is made to Michele Mehal, the community outreach manager at The Children’s Institute, to let her know that the event might deliver a smaller check than expected. But in the final days, donations started flooding in. The question was: Would it be enough last-minute activity? In the midst of the hectic morning, the two take a moment to tally the numbers. Not only do they reach their donation goal; they surpass the $50,000 mark. Yosafat, elated, takes a victory lap around the empty hall, whooping with joy and relief.

That evening, his reaction is multiplied by some 1,500 cheering audience members when Kim announces the donation total: more than $56,000, and he and Yosafat present a symbolic check to the Children Institute’s Mehal.
Olivia O’Connor (A’13)

(photo: Yosafat (left) and Kim hold a check that takes Mehal's breath away.)

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