By Jack Despeaux
Student Life Editor
What would you do for $50 worth of Cafe Sado sushi? What if one of your options to acquire that sweet Sado is to benefit children with arthritis? It comes out to be a nice deal, especially if you’re the competitive type.
On Saturday, April 14, the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority at Washington College had their annual “Strike Out Arthritis” dodgeball tournament. This yearly fundraiser provides students and athletes alike to play one of America’s most notorious gym class games to benefit children suffering from juvenile arthritis.
“Bringing awareness to this disease is important to us because we truly believe that no cause is too small,” junior Amanda Bland said.
“The goal of our annual dodgeball tournament is always first and foremost to raise money for the Arthritis Foundation,” junior Shannon Moran said. “All of AOPi’s philanthropy money goes directly to research, which is something we are incredibly proud of, but we also aim to raise awareness by hosting these philanthropic events.”
The tournament took place on the Green where three games would go on at a time, and teams that were not playing were able to refresh themselves with the free Chick-Fil-A provided.
Sophomore Samantha Snyder and junior Virginia Parker are the two philanthropy chairs of AOPi and were in charge of planning the tournament. During the competition itself, Parker made sure to remind everyone to stay hydrated in the heat of competition.
Many different organizations came out to partake in the tournament, especially fellow Greek organizations.
“We have teams that represent various organizations, and it offers students a way to donate to charity, engage with their peers, and have an amazing time getting active outside,” Moran said. The Phi Delta Theta, Kappa Sigma, and Theta Chi fraternities were present, and the swim team also had their own dodgeball team competing.
“Dodgeball is one of our biggest fundraising events of the year and gaining more and more support from the WC community each year truly makes all the hard work done by our philanthropy chairs worth while,” Bland said.
In the end, the Theta Chi team won the tournament and the $50 of Sado. The winners were presented medals and the money for their upcoming dinner.
“It was hard fought and we’ve been training at high altitudes for years now,” junior Matt Harmon of the winning team said.
“Striking Out Arthritis” is held once a year by the sorority, and is their major philanthropy event.
The event brought the sisters of AOPi together both in the way of their philanthropy, and in support of each other.
“During the year we support