At Texas A&M Chi Omega, service is truly the heart of our chapter! Nationally, Chi Omega supports the Make-A-Wish Foundation, a philanthropy that all Chi Omega chapters share. Make-A-Wish believes that wishes make life better for kids with life-threatening illnesses. This simple but powerful belief inspired the founding of Make-A-Wish and drives everything they do. We have absolutely loved getting to work with this incredible foundation to be able to offer these kids the chance to make lasting memories with their families and forget about their illnesses even for just a moment. We fundraise because no matter the circumstances, every child deserves a childhood. When a wish is granted, a child replaces fear with confidence, sadness with joy, and anxiety with hope. One of our favorite aspects of working with Make-A-Wish is that we are able to be very hands on and meet the girls we donate wishes to each semester! Every Fall and Spring semester we throw a wish reveal party for the recipients of our wish. This Spring, we had the chance to host a wish reveal party for Kayci, who got to go to Disney World! The joy of wish reveal days is joy that we will never forget.

 

Our local philanthropy is Still Creek Ranch, a home for children out of crisis situations. The ranch provides children with a loving family and a safe home for children in need. Chi Omega gets the opportunity to work very closely with the girls on this ranch through our mentorship program. Members of Chi O are able to spend weekly time together through after school hangouts, lunches together at school, cheering them on at sporting events and livestock shows, and so much more. Outside of the ranch, we host fun events at the house here like movie nights, game nights, and our service director puts on their school dance every year. But most importantly, we are there for the girls to be a friend. We are able to help these girls learn how to build trust, confidence, and meaningful relationships.

 

In order to support our philanthropies, Chi Omega hosts the largest philanthropy event on Texas A&M’s campus, called Songfest. Songfest is a high-energy dance competition composed of 30 organizations on campus who compete to earn money for their own philanthropies. Last year, Songfest was able to raise over $281,000, which was distributed to the 30 organizations, and our own Still Creek Ranch and Make-A-Wish.