Axe Undie Run

I was recently chosen by GMR marketing to be the campus ambassador for the University of Washington for the Undie Run which will be sponsored by Axe. The event will consist of members of the community around the University of Washington showing up at a starting point and donating the clothes they are wearing to charity. From here, all the participants in their underwear will run a set path around the campus of University of Washington to show their dedication to the community. The run will be no longer than one mile. This will be a very fun event and will mostly consist of the students of the University of Washington. My job in this internship is to instigate, promote, and run the event when the time comes. The current planned date for the event is May 11th, 2010. It will be starting around 8 P.M.

Nolan Heintz

Phi Gift

The twenty of gentleman of the phi class have made a generous decision. Each phi member will be making a considerable donation to the house for a specific project, that project has been decided, finally. A new basketball hoop is on it's way. To complement the new hoop, privacy hedges will be planted around the front exterior of the property. The new beautiful hedges will not only reduce our "fish bowl" appearance but will add to the immediate beauty of the house.
Immediately to the left as you enter the SigEp property from 21st is a sad excuse for a basketball court. The basketball hoop being the center piece, having an outrageously old backboard and broken rim. This all will soon be replaced. The common game of SigEp tips will change, but for the better(joe cant dunk). Another common problem with the 'basketball court' was that the bushes surrounding it are in a very poor condition and allow the ball to escape. The new hedges will provide a backstop to an escaping basketball.
It is commonly thought that we live in a "fish bowl" because of our large amounts of windows, but with the new inclusion of our hedges we will have a small sense of privacy near our front door. Along with the much needed aesthetic appeal that the hedges offer. So thank you to the generous donations being made by the graduating phi class in a much needed way!

Yesterday in Red Square, the brothers of Sigma Phi Epsilon joined forces with Northwest Auto Salon to present the third annual Red Square Charity Car Show. Three years ago the event was founded as the kick-off to the weeklong philanthropy event, SPE Karts. Each year we hold the event, it is an improvement on the last. As philanthropy chair, I am proud to announce that at this year’s car show, we were able to raise $2,250 for the Progressive Animal Welfare Society through car registrations and spectator donations. That effectively doubles the amount we raised last year and I hope that in future years, the trend continues.

The week’s events are far from over! Tomorrow evening, sorority participants will decorate a soapbox derby kart each chapter was given. On Wednesday, sororities will participate in a field day that will include a relay race and sumo suit wrestle. Finally, the week will culminate in a soapbox derby race held on the University of Washington campus where the sorority with the most points will win the title as “SPE Karts 2010 Champions”. For more information on the week’s events check out the Facebook group: “SPE Karts 2010”.

To make a donation, mail a check payable to PAWS to:

Sigma Phi Epsilon
ATTN: Charlie Meissner
4637 21st Ave NE
Seattle, WA 98105

Vancouver Winter Olympics

This past February, a small group of SigEps went on a trip to Vancouver BC to see the sites of the 2010 Olympic games. The Phis who attended were Sam Dowdle, Grady McGuire, Zack McMacken, and myself. Our Phi leader, Corey Krzan and my brother Scott Uhrich also joined us. When we first arrived, we took the Olympic Line streetcar to Granville Island to see a few of the shops. We then took the Olympic Line to downtown Vancouver to see the main area of the games. We immediately saw gatherings of diverse people from around the world. Everywhere we looked we saw hundreds of people and there was a line for nearly every store and restaurant. The longest line we saw was for the Olympic Superstore. Since we wanted the full Olympic experience, we decided to wait in it. The line moved quickly, winding around two sides of a block. Later that day we walked down Granville Street in downtown Vancouver. We saw things ranging from zip lines from buildings, to stations set up to celebrate nearly every country. We even saw Canada Hockey Place (where the hockey games were played) and BC Place (where the opening and closing ceremonies were held). We eventually stopped to eat at Red Robin and soon after we made or way to the see the Olympic torch. The area was filled with people and flags of every country. Nearly everyone had a camera out and was taking pictures. The atmosphere was exciting and everyone was extremely nice. I frequently saw people politely asking strangers to take pictures of them so they could remember this experience forever. As night drew near we headed to a restaurant to watch the exceedingly popular men's curling final, of which Canada won, and the third place hockey game. With Canada's victory in curling, the streets filled with chants of Go Canada! It was an incredible experience to be at the Olympics, and I am happy I was able to share it with my close fraternity friends.

-Ryan Uhrich

A visit to the Church of Scientology

A few weeks ago Sam Dowdle, Alex Suryan, Ben Melton, Jason Covert, Ryan Uhrich and I went to the Seattle Church of Scientology. We took a personality test called the "Oxford Capacity Analysis"... no word on whether anyone with any connection to the University of Oxford was consulted to create the test. The test was over 200 questions long and asked questions like, "do you often make thoughtless remarks or accusations which you later regret?" and "do you sleep well?". My results seemed contradictory to me because it said I am both nervous and determined. We also were the only people who didn't work at the church to attend the Sunday service. We saw many signs and symbols similar to christianity including crosses, the pastor's collar, and his title, "pastor". However, he claimed scientology is not based on traditional religion. Before we went to the church, I did some research of my own. I found some clips of writing from founder L. Ron Hubbard quoting famous psychologists, however I also found writings by him rebuking modern psychology. While we all found the experience interesting, I think it raised far more questions than it answered.

Curtis Knapp

Epsilon Pre-Ritual Study

Our Epsilon Ritual is the second to last stage of our membership development. This is the stage members must reach in order to be alumni of the fraternity. This is where the secrets and meanings of our fraternity are revealed.
Our chapter room is technically a public room. All of our ritual equipment is left out at all times and it is public. The secret comes from the meaning of all the equipment. This meaning is learned during the Epsilon Rite of Passage. These secrets are what connect brothers around the nation to each other. We all share the same secrets and ritual.
As the Chaplain, I decided it would be a good activity to use the SigEp mural which has all of our ritual equipment on it in a pre-ritual study. All of the Phis would sit together and try to figure out the meaning of all of the ritual equipment the day before the ritual. They would make their decision based upon what we have learned in the Sigma and Phi rituals. I believe this will reinforce the meaning and significance once we truly learn what it means during the ritual.

Alex Shuler

Membership Record Book

For the past month or so I have been going around to all the members of the house asking for the dates of when they signed their bid cards and officially joined Sigma Phi Epsilon. I want to collect all of these dates because as of a few months ago our house purchased a membership record book. Now this book contains pretty much every bit of information that a person would legally want to write down for other people to see. It shows the names of members past and current, some of their interests, why they wanted to be a SigEp and many more other interesting bits of information. Once this book is finished it will be a cool thing that any SigEp can go look at years down the road and reminisce on the glory days.
Sam