DKESpreadsValentine’sLoveandCharitywith FlowerGrams

Adrianne Hutto Production Editor

The brothers of Delta Kappa Epsilon hosted their annual Valentine’s Day flower gram sale to raise money for the American Cancer society. This event, which has been a long standing tradition for the brothers, has always been a success. Last year, the brothers raised over $1,300 and this year they raised $900. For this event, the brothers sold single red roses for $4, which came with a bag of candy and a note for purchasers to fill out.

Michael Gibson is a sophomore and philanthropy chair of Delta Kappa Epsilon. This year, Gibson was charged with organizing the event.

“We’ve done it in the past few years,” Gibson said. “We’re just redoing it, keeping it going, keeping the tradition going.”

For Gibson, the best part of the event is watching the joy they bring to others.

“Just watching people walk by and get excited about going up to the table and actually just buying flowers not even thinking about it,” Gibson said. “You know, giving it to people. It’s a great Valentine’s Day event. You get to see a lot of people smile.”

Joseph Talenti, a junior and the president of Delta Kappa Epsilon, explains that the brothers enjoy getting to participate in the fundraising event.

“I’d say my favorite part about this event is spending time outdoors on the quad, hanging out with other organizations that are doing their charities and spending time with the brothers as we raise money for a good cause,” Talenti said.

Talenti, who previously held the position of philan- thropy chair and organized the event the previous year, explains that there are several challenges of organizing this particular fundraising event.

“Buying all the things like the flowers, the chocolates, the cards, stuff like that, and then trying to sell all of them because we buy a lot of them, but we make it work,” Talenti said.

The choice of philanthropy was an easy one, as the American Cancer Society is Delta Kappa Epsilon’s primary charity organization.

“It’s something we’ve done since the beginning, when we first got here, so we kind of just kept up with it,” Juan Posada said, the vice president of Delta Kappa Epsilon. “We have a lot of brothers that have personally dealt with cancer in their lives. So, I think it’s good to give money back to them.”

This year in particular, the brothers faced some challenges towards the beginning of the event with the freshness of the flowers, but it did not affect the overall success of the event.

“It definitely takes a lot of teamwork and communication within the chapter,” Posada said. “And within the E-Board initially, and also getting the philanthropy chair to send constant reminders.”

With this year and previous years’ success, the brothers plan to continue to host this event in the future.

“We’re absolutely going to do this every year in the foreseeable future,” Talenti said. “I don’t think there’s anything I would change, just keep trying to raise as much money as possible.”

Editor’s note: Angelica Niedermeyer, the Quadrangle’s Features Editor, contributed to reporting for this article.