Gamma Alumni Newsletter

Hi Alums! Hi! My name is Rachel Polonsky and I am the Chair of Alumni Relations. I am excited to

increase communications with all of the alumni, starting with this newsletter. I also can’t wait for

the Alumni Associations to get up and running and for more of you to become involved. Below,

you will find messages from some of the Executive Board members who wanted to say hi and tell

you what is going on at Gamma this semester. Please feel free to contact me any time at

rsp73@cornell.edu if you have any questions or want to arrange a visit!

In LFS,

Rachel Polonsky

Chair of Alumni Relations

HOMECOMING!!! 9/17/2011

Last month was Homecoming and it was really great to see

some of the Gamma alumni. We hosted a tailgate where

alumni, brothers, and even some pledges got to meet and

enjoy great food and music. Then we had a dinner at

Aladdin’s. Cornell football even won the game against

Bucknell!

Thank you to all who visited! We loved seeing you! To

everyone who wasn’t there, I hope you come up to Ithaca

next year with me.

F A L L 2 0 1 1

Gamma Circa 1989

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THE LOREM IPSUMS SUMMER 2012 Gamma Alumni Newsletter Fall 2011

SAVE THE DATE

GAMMA 85th ANNIVERSARY

Hello Gamma Alumni, Brothers and Friends!

We are very excited to announce the weekend of February 17th-19th

as Gamma's 85th Anniversary Weekend! Please mark this

weekend on your calendar(s), so you can experience all of the Gamma fun including, but not limited to a banquet, service projects,

networking, and fellowships. We will be sending formal invitations by mail with all of the logistical and RSVP information at a later date. If

you have any questions/concerns/or memories of Gamma that you would like to share, please feel free to email Emily Dura at

emd96@cornell.edu. As a chapter, we look forward to seeing you in February!

Sincerely,

The Gamma 85th Anniversary Committee

February 17-19 2012, Cornell University

We hope to see you there!

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THE LOREM IPSUMS SUMMER 2012

Hello from the President I am Nicole Offerdahl, Gamma's president for 2011. I am very excited to be in this position, and I hope to guide Gamma in a direction that will build further on Leadership, Friendship, and Service and incorporate our massive growth over the past few semesters into a better, more tight-knit

brotherhood. Things are going great at Gamma this semester. We've been off to a busy start, planning several events. A keynote event, albeit tragic, was the memorial service event for a brother, Nate Rand '12, who passed this summer in a tragic gorge accident. We hope to raise funds for a worthy cause, perhaps benefiting children. In addition, we raised

the service requirement to eighteen hours, and have switched websites from the GMS system. So many changes

are happening! Gamma is really entering a new chapter in its life, with over sixty-eight pledges inducted this semester. We have continued to have high recruitment levels, and it is extremely exciting. I think that this high level of participation will continue for a few semesters more, at least, which means some changes to Gamma, in addition to those mentioned.

Hi Alums! I’d like to catch you up on one of Gamma’s regular events, Brotherhood Retreat! A few weeks ago Gamma made Brotherhood Retreat a 24 hour-long event! One set of brothers visited the Corning Museum of Glass in the morning. Another group of brothers spent the afternoon taking in the scenery at Camp Comstock. Some brothers even dared to spend the night, staying in the Camp Comstock cabins making s’mores, taking late-night Taco Bell runs, and even getting a little sleep! Brotherhood Retreat is a great opportunity for our large brotherhood to spend quality time getting to know one another and it was the perfect way to kick-start the semester! I look forward to updating you with the Membership happenings in the future! In LFS, Darcee Rooney Vice President of Membership

Gamma Alumni Newsletter Fall 2011

Message from the VPM We're working on changing the culture so that the tight-knit feel that no doubt existed when we were smaller can be brought back. In addition, there has been such an influx of people that we're working to have our service projects catch up, though our new VPS has been

highly successful at this. I'm really excited about this new newsletter, and I hope that it improves ties between alumnae and current students. If any of you have any questions about the goings on in Gamma chapter that aren't answered in this newsletter, please get in contact with me! I can be reached at nmo3@cornell.edu. In LFS,

Nicole Offerdahl President

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THE LOREM IPSUMS SUMMER 2012

Message from the VPS

Hi AWL,

I hope that this message finds you well. Here at Gamma, we are off to a good start. To be of service amidst the hustle of bustle of Cornellian life is a noble endeavor. The service team at Gamma chapter has found great success in regards to working to build up traditional projects as well as search for new organizations to partner with. We’ve started a relatively new partnership with BJM Elementary and regularly participate in “LightsOff Cornell.” We’ve also kept up traditional events such as Condom Rose Sales and Miles for Pennies Jar Wars. Fundraising for our own chapter is being headed by renewed efforts to get brothers excited about projects such as selling hot

chocolate on blustery, winter days! With a growing brotherhood there has been a growing desire to go out and change the world, one small corner at a time. In accordance, we have raised our service requirements from 15

hours a semester to 18 hours.

With brothers completing over 2000 hours of service last semester and hoping to complete many more this semester, we'd love to know about projects you enjoyed! What projects do you still remember with a smile and hope to have continued long past your time at Cornell? Have any project ideas? Feel free to send questions, comments, concerns, and your happy greetings to us! If it is service, related you can

contact me at cj254@cornell.edu. I’d like to also thank you for the endeavors you all worked on tirelessly to give us a platform

with which we hope to learn and grow! In LFS, Jocelyn Chacko Vice President of Service

Gamma Alumni Newsletter Fall 2011

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THE LOREM IPSUMS SUMMER 2012

Hurray For Pledges!

Hi Alumni! Pledging has gotten off to a great start this year! We themed rush towards Hercules: Be a Hero, Serve Your Community! After an extremely successful rush, we inducted 65 amazing pledges. They have already learned about the history of APO through performing skits to each other and it was a bit hit! We also went over all of the Officers with them, as well as how to chair a service project and how to chair a fellowship. Recently, it was Big/Little

week! All of the Bigs anonymously emailed their Littles and got presents for them.

Then, Friday was Big/Little Reveal where they will officially found

out who their Bigs were. We planned some fun

games, as well as the Big/Little ceremony. We're

all very excited for the rest of the semester! Oh and if you

come to the 85th Anniversary, you'll be able to meet all the new

members! We'd love for you to pass down your APO wisdom!

In LFS,

Madeline Cumings Pledgemaster

Hi From Hannah This semester has been going great in terms of fellowships! We have lots of brothers stepping up and chairing fun things, such as tours at a local farm sanctuary, dinners in downtown Ithaca, gym classes, and one brother is even starting a series of fellowships to complete things on Cornell's famous "161 Things" list. As for formal, it's going to be on campus this semester, in the beautiful new Physical Sciences Building! The theme is going to Ancient Greece, to go along with the theme of this semester's pledging program (Hercules). I have a committee of wonderful people who are helping me put together what will hopefully be an amazing night! In LFS, Hannah Fillas Vice President of Fellowship

Gamma Alumni Newsletter Fall 2011

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THE LOREM IPSUMS SUMMER 2012

Message from SAA

Historian Hello Hey everyone, A brief update from the Historian! As we are all involved with the ins and outs of Cornell daily life, Gamma is moving right along, slowly approaching its 85th anniversary. With an awesome group of new inducted pledges, we will be continuing the tradition of serving the fraternity, campus, community, and nation with strongly developed leaders and friends for yet another year. My goal for the semester is to prepare a written history of Gamma to be ready for the anniversary in February. That's right, Gamma's own written history! If anyone has anything they would like to contribute to this, please feel free to email me and let me know; this will include as much as it can about our chapter! Thank you all for all you have contributed to Gamma - you have each been an essential part in creating our history thus far. I look forward to updating you on the written history in the future, and again, feel free to contact me with any contributions or comments at mn354@cornell.edu. In LFS, Michelle Nanni Historian

Gamma Alumni Newsletter Fall 2011

for Breast Cancer Awareness month in the fall. Our five families are ever expanding with tons of new pledges and we've had some pretty amazing formals the past couple semesters. We're also ever-increasing our communication with other chapters of APO, such as having Syracuse visit for Applefest in Ithaca and doing pen-pal letters with our sister chapter in UC Davis! In LFS, Ryan Bresnahan Sergeant at Arms

Hey Gamma Alums! I'm stoked to have you all come back for the 85th Anniversary Celebration! I've met a few of you already from visits to Ithaca, those who are now here at Cornell for grad school, and at our National Conference in Atlanta this past December, but I hope so many more of you will come check out how our amazing chapter is doing these days. It's going to be a really great event and you can marvel at how epic all of our newest brothers are! February might be an odd time for a mini vacation, but here at Gamma we'll be throwing one great party! Lately we've been working on a ton of awesome events. We've continued doing Relay for Life in spring semester and have added One Day Without Shoes as a big awareness event on campus for March/April. In addition, we're bringing back Dodge for Diabetes and doing a lot of campus-wide events