Cincinnati Dance Marathon!

Teaming up with Sigma Chi Fraternity, OH Kappa took Cincinnati Dance Marathon by storm. The 24-hour dance marathon was held over the last weekend of February, and had over 850 dancers registered to attend. Pi Phi and Sigma Chi brought in over 60 dancers to enjoy the night.

Throughout the evening and in the morning, families who are benefited by the money came to share their stories. Powerful, Peyton Stevens, stole the show with her tale. All proceeds go directly into the Children's Miracle Network which funds Cincinnati Children's Hospital, and many like it.

The team raised almost $900 dollars for the event. Sophomore Tori Roser said, "We had an amazing time getting to know each other. There is always going to be a weird sense of camaraderie once 5am hits. We danced like fools and listened intently to what the families had to say. Overall, CDM was an experience to remember."

Pi Phi has two chapter members who have sat on CDM's exec, Devon Stansbury and Brittany Gunther. OH Kappa is beyond proud to have such close ties to this event. The Morale Team, a.k.a. the CDM Cheerleaders, also had four Pi Phi's on it's team: Kenzie Austin, Alyssa Vah, Hannah Foureman and Tori Roser.

We're looking forward to our involvement in the planning and participating of next year's Cincinnati Dance Marathon.

Mother-Daughter Brunch

Pi Beta Phi hosts their 2^nd Annual Mother Daughter Brunch on February 12 in Stratford Heights!

“My favorite part of the event was seeing how similar my sisters looked and acted like their mothers,” said Beth Morand, a second-year member.

Ocer 140 mothers and daughters enjoyed waffles and eggs while catching up with each other and meeting new people. Some members enjoyed the opportunity to show their mothers what Greek life was all about.

“My mom really enjoyed meeting everyone and seeing exactly why I am in Pi Beta Phi,” said Morand. “This event helped my mom realize why I chose to be in a sorority.”

During the event raffle tickets were sold for a chance to win various baskets including: Mrs. Clean, Sweet Tooth, Spa Day, Brain Challenge, UC Spirit and All About Feet. Ticket sales totaled $190, which was donated to the Pi Beta Phi Foundation.

“I love the idea of the Mother Daughter Brunch,” said Megan Eastman, a first-year member. “You can spend quality time with your mom and with your sisters. There is nothing better than that!”

The event’s popularity has grown each year and Pi Phi plans to continue to expand on it. A larger venue and more fundraising possibilities are being considered for next year.

Exec Experience

Over the past two years, I have had the amazing opportunity to have served my chapter in two different executive positions. I served as Ohio Kappa’s first ever Vice President of Philanthropy and as our second Vice President of Member Development. Each of these roles required a lot of time and sacrifice on my part. But, the first lesson that Pi Phi taught me is that I would be nowhere without my committees. I have been lucky enough to work with some amazing women as I helped to build this chapter and I know that my life and my leadership style would not be the same without each and every one of them.

Leadership in Pi Phi is not defined by how much one person can do, how many great ideas one person has or how one person thinks the chapter should be run. Pi Phi has taught me that the most important thing about being a great leader is being a loyal follower. There are many times that my chairs and committee members knew far more than I did and had many more ideas than I could ever dream to have. Leadership in Pi Phi has taught me to value the insight of everyone I work with. 

            Each of the lessons that serving on Executive Council has taught me will extend far beyond my Pi Phi experience and even beyond my college experience. The skills that I have developed as a leader in this organization have deeply influenced my abilities in the classroom—whether it be working in groups, giving presentations, or knowing that am I responsible to complete my assignments well. Pi Phi Executive Council has given me the confidence to know that I can tackle any career I may choose or any challenge I may face. The experience that I had as a two-time member of Executive Council is truly priceless.


Written By: Becca Wood 

Valentine's Day with Pike

This year the UC Pi Phi’s were graciously invited by the men of Pi Kappa Alpha (Pike) to a delicious and entertaining Valentine’s dinner. Not only were we treated to a meal specially prepared by a chef, we also experienced a surprise visit from the Cincinnati Zoo—recently named the “Sexiest Zoo in America.” 

Val Nastold, Cincinnati Zoo keeper for the past 25 years, brought four of his favorite friends: Chalupa (three banded Argentinean armadillo), Bach (African grey horned bill), Joe (African species emperor scorpion) and Snipe (African ball python) for an exciting and educational presentation. While at first we were a little shocked by the presence of these zoo animals, the Pi Phis quickly warmed up to the exotic species and surely learned something new.

Freshman Stacie Denton says, “The gentlemen of Pike were fantastic valentines and gave us the best surprise by letting us meet some animals from the zoo.” She continues, “My favorite part was petting the armadillo and learning the three banded armadillo is the only species that can roll itself into a ball!”

Spending quality time with other Greeks is always a top priority. Mark Zangardi, Pike’s external vice president, comments, “It’s important for Greeks to get together for events like this in order to learn new things from each other…Without collaborative events there would be no ‘Greek community.’ “

Written by: Michelle Tufano

Seniors in OH Kappa Pi Beta Phi

           As a senior of Pi Phi, you may experience many events. For example, we host alternative meetings where we discuss things ranging from what it means to leave a legacy behind to what kinds of socials we’d like to have. You participate in socials, some of which the chapter sponsors, but beyond that, the seniors attend events to make us closer as a class. This quarter, specifically, we are attending a chapter-sponsored event where we will do paintings on canvases together, just us senior class. Next quarter, we hope to attend other events such as comedy shows, baseball games, or simply having a night out at dinner!

            When a senior is graduating, we host a ceremony called Senior Farewell Ceremony. The Vice President of Membership is highly involved in this process, as well as our AAC members (or our alumni members). This ceremony is important in transitioning the seniors into the real world as adults. What is different about the ceremony coming up on March 6^th for Lori Sobolewski (our only graduating senior) is that we will have a Region 2 Pi Phi in town! Leisa Lowrey is the Regional Director for Region 2, which is a huge deal! This ceremony is followed by the Seniors Toasts, which is where other Pi Phi’s send off the graduating Pi Phis with funny, tearful sayings to cap off their year as graduating seniors!

            All of these ceremonies and events are special to specifically seniors, giving us one last push until we’re out in the real world as adults! Being a Pi Phi cannot be summed up in two paragraphs, but this is just a glimpse into several ceremonies involved in a Pi Phi senior’s life!

Written by: Sara Ventrella

Celebrating our Differences

Over this past Hanukkah season, some of my Pi Phi sisters and I had an interesting opportunity to help one of my sisters, Becca, and her family.  What we had to do was pretty simple; help prepare a dinner from scratch for several hundred people.  It is something her family does every year, they help host and prepare a dinner sponsored by the Herb Byer memorial fund.  The dinner is open to the entire community and has a fantastic turnout each year.  My sister asked for some extra assistance for her mother, who works the whole week preparing food for this dinner, entirely from scratch.

I was only able to help one day out of the week, from nine a.m. until about three p.m.  Our first task was peeling potatoes for the latkes, which are extremely delicious potato pancakes.  (One perk of the job was taste testing!)  After peeling hundreds of pounds of potatoes with Becca’s whole family we moved on to place settings.  Each place setting needed to be set and each table needed decorated.  However, when you put six sorority sisters in charge of this the task goes nice and quick, and gets very entertaining.  Luckily Becca’s grandmother was there to keep us on task and make sure everything looked as it should.  Even our lunch break became an education when we learned all about kosher foods.  What makes them kosher, the importance and the history.  We even ordered kosher pizza for lunch!  Our last task of the day was peeling and cutting apples so Becca’s mother could make homemade applesauce.  Again, it was proven that many hands make light work and we were done in no time. 

Throughout the day we had been asking Becca many questions about the Jewish faith, her synagogue, Hanukkah traditions and anything else we could think of.  She was extremely patient with us and answered everything and fascinated us with her answers.  Then we were able to get a tour of her temple, The Adath Israel Synagogue.  It’s a beautiful building and our tour guide was excellent in explaining everything that perplexed us.  We all left that day with a much better understanding of the Jewish faith and its traditions as well as some entertaining memories that can only come from peeling hundreds of pounds of apples and potatoes and setting tables to seat hundreds.


By: Alex Hartke

Pizza-Movie-Sundays!

PMS is the newest, funniest thing to hit the Ohio Kappa chapter of Pi Beta Phi. PMS (Pizza, Movie, Sunday) is a sisterhood where the girls meet at our beautiful home on Sunday afternoons to enjoy a movie, pizza, and their sisters company.  At the very first PMS the girls watched Confessions of a Shopaholic, which was a huge success.  The TV Room’s couches were full and girls were even scattered on the floor.  For me, I really enjoyed the sisterhood, it gave the older girls a relaxed setting to get to know the younger girls.  Being able to talk to girls is the best way for me to get to know all of my sisters on a deeper level. I’ve truly enjoyed this experience, and cannot wait to watch our next movies.  

By: Lori Sobolewski