The End of a Semester

As the semester comes to a close, the guys are busy studying for finals, and preparing for break.

The house just initiated nine new guys for the fall semester:
#443- Sam Schumacher
#444- Colin Willoughby
#445- Andrew Puhr
#446- Greg Evans
#447- Axel Pedregosa
#448- Alex Certa
#449- Daniel Quitschau
#450- Tim Witthoft
#451- Eric Ross
Congratulations to all of the new guys.

Elections were held November 22nd and the new positions are:

Executive Board
Archon: Patrick Sullivan
Vice Archon: Aaron Signer
Treasurer: Scott Taylor
Secretary: Aaron Friedman
Warden: Kyle Campoli
Historian: Markus Johnson
Chaplain: Steve Evangelista

Non-Exec
Push: Sam Schumacher
Assistant Treasurer: Daniel Quitschau
Social: Andrew Finley

Recent Events

The house has been busy with a lot of stuff lately.

On October 21 the guys built another deck for PARC in East Peoria. With all of the new guys, and help from Mr. Coons the deck was finished very quick.







In the month of September the guys in the house were involved in a hamburger eating contest at Bar Louie. Every Tuesday the house got guys together and they went there to eat $1 hamburgers. Some guys were polishing off 6 hamburgers per visit. In the end we won by a landslide victory.





Pi Kapps: 250 hamburgers
DU: 150 hamburgers
Delts: 60 hamburgers

Since we won we got to have a party at Bar Louie with 50 lbs of hot wings and some quesadillas.

This past week was Greek Week on Bradley's campus and all of the guys had a great time. On Monday T.J. Sullivan, a Pi Kapp from Indiana, gave a speech to the entire Greek community. Tuesday and Wednesday was the blood drive. On Thursday there was Panfrasing. Our guys were with SK and Sig Ep. The end of the week brought about Greek Games.

Pledge Dad Night/Deadman's

It has been a very busy fall for all of the guys. Right now midterms are going on and everyone is busy with classes and what not.

The pledge class has been working hard at becoming fraternity members. They are doing a really good job so far. Their pledge dad night was October 8th.

The pledge dad/kids are:

Daniel Bressler- Daniel Becker

Joe Glauert- Dave Brennan

Dylan Blake- Alex Certa

Jeff Votava- Greg Evans

Kyle Campoli- Axel Pedregosa

Ed Gillen- Andrew Puhr

Markus Johnson- Daniel Quitschau

Zach Rymarcsuk- Eric Ross

Aaron Friedman- Sam Schumacher

Steve Evangelista- Colin Willoughby

Aaron Signer- Tim Witthoft

The 2008 Deadman's was held October 18th and everyone had a good time. Here are some pictures:

Everyone had a good time, just ask Andrew

Get Your Groove on Rocko

Successful 10 man Active Pyramid

The Beta Epsilon Pledge Class

There will be more updates coming, if anybody has any questions or anything that they would like to see in the blog, contact me at pi.kappa.phi.historian@gmail.com

Pi Kappa Phi Welcomes New Members

The names of the Beta Epsilon pledge class are:

Daniel Becker-Freshman-Psychology/Business
David Brennan-Freshman-Undecided Engineering
Greg Evans-Freshman-Mechanical Engineering
Rob Gilbert-Freshman-Mechanical Engineering
Axel Pedregosa-Freshman-Actuarial Science
Andrew Puhr- Mechanical Engineering
Daniel Quitschau-Freshman-Market Economics
Eric Ross-Freshman-Elementary Education
Colin Willoughby-Freshman-Business Management
Tim Witthoft-Freshman-Mechanical Engineering

We welcome these new guys and hope to turn them into great leaders. We look forward to having them around and being a great new addition to the house. This semester looks to be a good one.

Start of Another Semester/Rush 2008

Another semester has begun. The guys in the house arrived back August 17^th to begin their work week, and for a lot of the guys it was their first work week. They added on to the deck between the house and College Hall. A fence was added between the fronts of the two houses and stairs were extended from the upper deck down to ground level. The new addition is planned on being used for grilling out and pool parties using the blow-up pool that was acquired over the summer.

The usual work week activities were also done such as touch up painting around the house and some yard work. After work week came welcome week, which started out with move in day. The brothers started the day bright and early at nine in the morning, helping all of the new students move in. The following days involved Taste of Bradley, Activities Fair, and Ribs for Cribs. The brothers worked on meeting potential new members at all of the activities.

Classes started the Wednesday after that, and all of the brothers got right down to business with all of their class of course. Most of the focus at the current time is Rush. During the summer, many of the brothers made contact with the incoming freshmen. They have been spending the time before Rush, and the current time, meeting with these prospectives, hoping to spark an interest in Pi Kappa Phi. Steve Evangelista, the current Vice Archon has been working hard to get a good size pledge class for the Fall Semester. The first round of Rush was this past Saturday and Sunday, September 6^th and 7^th. The round involved 20 minute rounds apiece. There were several alumni who came down to support the brothers for Rush. Dan Charleston, Paul Witt, Steve Haubner, Frank Rice, Jeff Puskarich, Mike Ferrer and Kent Fleming were the alumni that were able to make it down. Paul and Dan gave speeches to each of the groups of Rushees, while the other alumni were able talk with some of the potential new members. A lot of great guys were met and we are hoping to see a lot of them back second round. It would be great to see more Alumni down this upcoming weekend for second and third round.

The past weekend was a great time, and I’m sure that this next weekend will be the same, just ask any of the guys who made it down this past weekend. To let everyone know Second Round starts Friday September 12^thth at 3:00. Hope to see anyone who can make it down, meet up with some other alumni, have some fun, and support the actives during recruitment. at 3:00 each session will be forty minutes, and Third Round will start Saturday September 13

The Close of Another Semester

The spring semester has come to a close, and most brothers have headed home for the summer vacation. The end of this semester has been busy. We won C league volleyball for the spring tournament, there was initiation, an Accessibility project, and elections were held.

For initiation we welcomed six new brothers, two of which were alumni initiates.

437- Markus Johnson

438- Zach Rymarcsuk

439- Joel Dockery

440- Dylan Blake

Alumni Initiates

441- John Fisher

442- John Waldmueller

Both of the Alumni Initiates were guys who have helped us with the Accessibility Project a few times.

Another Accessibility Project was held May 3^rd to help out PARC once again to build a handicap accessible ramp. All of the brothers worked together and built a very nice deck that the residents were very grateful for.

Elections were held and the new positions are:

Executive Positions

Secretary: Jeff Votava

Warden: Alex Keating

Historian: Brian Kroeter

Chaplain: Charlie Lau

Non-Executive Positions

PUSH Chair: Aaron Signer

Assistant Treasurer: Zach Rymarcsuk

Social: Steve Evangelista

The winners for Man of the Year, Athlete of the Year, and Alumni of the Year were also picked.

Man of the Year: Scott Kenley

Athlete of the Year: Steve Evangelista

Alumni of the Year: Hector Martinez

We congratulate the three men who are graduating this year, Jon Fredbeck, Kevin Machak, and Scott Kenley, and we wish them the greatest success in all of their future endeavors.

An alumni event is in progress for the fall, if you have any suggestions please feel free to e-mail me at pi.kappa.phi.historian@gmail.com.

Recent happenings

The spring semester has been a busy one for Pi Kappa Phi. In early March, we had a toll roads fund raiser in Hoffman Estates. The men raising money braved the cold weather and managed to collect over $1000 dollars to be donated to Push America. Over spring break, 3 actives devoted their week off to help people at a Push Camp. Ed Gillen, Matt Rock, and Jeff Votava all spent 4 days at a camp in Carbondale doing projects in order to make the camp more accessible. Despite the 16+ inches of rain, the experience was a great one for all 3 of them.

Over the weekend of March 29th, the members of Pi Kappa Phi spent 2 days in a cabin together. Between games of foot tag, diplomacy and ropes courses, the brothers had a fantastic time. No one was seriously injured, and no one was lost to the wilderness.

As far as what is to come, the semiannual AccesAbility project was pushed back from the 12th of April, and now will be held on the 3rd of May. Hopefully this will mean warmer weather and a more pleasant experience overall.

The final day of classes is the 6th of May, and finals run from May 8th until May 14th. We have 3 seniors graduating; Scott Kenley, Kevin Machak, and Jon Fredbeck. We wish them all the best in their future endeavors.

Over the summer, Bill Coons and Ed Gillen will be participating in Build America, a summer long Push event to help make camps more accessible to those with disabilities. Their fund raising goal is $3500 dollars each, and if you would like to help, you can contact me at skenley@bradley.edu and I will give you their information.

Pi Kappa Phi Welcomes

Epsilon Mu would like to welcome 4 new associate members for the spring semester. The chapter looks forward to having these members for the next 3+ years, and helping them to grow into better men. We would like to welcome the Beta Delta Class:

Dylan Blake- Sophomore- Photography and Multimedia
Joel Dockery- Freshman- Undecided
Marcus Johnson- Freshman- Journalism
Zach Rymarcsuk- Freshman- Electrical Engineering

Pi Kappa Phi looks forward to an exciting semester and beyond.

Empathy Dinner

On February 8th, the brothers of the Epsilon Mu chapter of Pi Kappa Phi came together to help raise awareness and funds for Push America. We hosted an Empathy dinner. We invited students all over Bradley's campus to come to the chapter house and receive a temporary disability to eat dinner with. This helped the students to become aware of how difficult it can be to have a disability and to have a new appreciation of how amazing these people are. The brothers would like to extend a special thank you to Hector Martinez for attending the dinner.

In addition to the Empathy dinner, the brothers of Pi Kappa Phi at Bradley will be helping Push America in other ways. On the 7th of March, the brothers will be sending members to collect money for Push America by canning on the streets. April 12th will bring the brothers together to build a deck at a group home for PARC; the 4th of such decks built by Pi Kappa Phi in Peoria.

Alumni Newsletter/Break Update

I first of all wanted to thank all of the alumni that have given us feedback on the Alumni Newsletter that was sent out at the end of the semester. It was the first one we had sent out in quite a long time, and we now realize how much it is appreciated. Jon did a lot of work over the course of the fall semester to ensure that it was done as well as possible and had the most information it could. Any ideas that you may have about the next newsletter, things you liked or didn't like, things you would like to see, send to me at skenley@bradley.edu. I'll try to include as much as I can in this semester's newsletter. I know that many alumni had expressed an interest in having a digital copy, so I put the file online here. Unfortunately, I had to remove most of the pictures, as the file was too big for the website it was hosted at.

2008 will be an exciting year for Pi Kappa Phi. The weekend of the 11th-13th is the Mid-Year Leadership Conference put on by Pi Kapp nationals. We will be sending 7 attendees who will come back with the knowledge needed to lead the Epsilon Mu chapter in the spring. Classes begin on the 23rd of January. In other news, we look to have a new, functional website designed this semester by one of our new initiates, Joe Glauert. I will keep you updated on his progress.

In other news, I am considering whether to have an alumni event in the spring, sometime in April most likely. If you have any ideas on what you would like to do, or if you like the idea, let me know. The men of Epsilon Mu wish you all the best in the new year, and look forward to your continued involvement in Pi Kappa Phi