One campus fraternity and different sororities are out to prove that giving is an integral part of Greek Life.
Members of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity gathered for their “Phi-Lanthropy Clothing Drive” Oct. 29 in the student union, encouraging sorority members to rummage through their belongings and donate to the Big Brothers, Big Sisters program.

“Everybody’s got clothes,” said Nico Caliboso, a fraternity member who volunteered at the event. “Everybody’s got clothes they don’t wear anymore.”

The group raised more than 2,000 articles of clothing to donate to the program, Phi Delta Theta president Danny Daniels said.

Project organizer Kevin Kinney said the final count of clothing came to more than 2,500 items.
“That’s the most we’ve ever raised. I feel awesome about it. We helped people,” Kinney said.

Fraternity members sorted through and counted the donations, most of which came from members of different campus sororities.

The sororities competed among themselves to donate the most. Phi Delta Theta members also brought in a few items of clothing for the drive.

The goal, Daniels said, was to allow members of the UNLV community to actively participate in a giving-back event. “I was very thankful for the [results],” Daniels said.

Participants were also able to donate money towards the fraternity’s philanthropy, the ALS Association.
The charitable organization focuses on funding the fight against Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

“It was a great effort by a lot of the sororities,” Caliboso said. Kinney said he felt the event went extremely well and he added that he hopes his fellow fraternity members carry on the tradition.

“It was a great philanthropy [project] and we did a lot for a lot of people,” he said.

Daniels said he has seen the charity project become more organized as the years have gone by. Now in his third year as a member of Phi Delta Theta, Daniels said he focused on organizing the event in his first year as a member.

He said he’d like to see the event continue to draw in participants from different campus groups.
“I just hope we can get a little more of the community [involved]… so we can actually give thousands of clothes,” he said.

Kinney agreed, saying he wants future members of the fraternity to build on the current system to ensure success for years to come.

“You always want to see something grow from what you did before,” he said.

Caliboso said he was happy to see participation from people who were not involved in sororities and fraternities and he said he’d like to see that continue.

“One thing that I liked was a few people people who donated clothes that weren’t in [Greek organizations],” he said.

He went on to say that his time in the fraternity, nearly a year and a half, has given him time to observe how it assists the cause of the fraternity.

“Everybody was hopped up about it,” he said.
Kinney said he was proud of the event and the work done by all involved.

“It was a great philanthropy [project],” he said, “and we did a lot for a lot of people.”