In our summer 2020 Delta Dispatch we reported that the Capital Campaign raised $62,500 last year. In the six months following that update, over $75,000 has been donated to the Capital Campaign. As the holidays approach and 2020 draws to a close, we hope you will consider including the Delta Chapter in your year-end giving plans. Our donations and pledges as of November 2020 total over $600,000, and we are hopeful that we can reach $700,000 by the time we start construction.
On the construction front, we recently reached the important milestone of submitting our plans to the Board of Architectural Review for approval. We had our first hearing at the November 17 meeting and the feedback was very positive and encouraging. We expect to receive the official nod at an upcoming meeting. With enough support, we could launch our redevelopment of 125 Chancellor Street as early as next year. You can see all the latest renderings on our Chapter website.
If you haven’t yet made a contribution, we hope you will consider joining your Brothers in supporting the Delta Chapter at this important time. ANY AMOUNT you can contribute is welcome and appreciated!
As a reminder, the naming rights for every room in the house are being offered in exchange for donations of $15,000 for bedrooms and $50,000 for common area rooms. Congratulations and a massive “Thank You!” are due to Brother Michael Sharkey (’81), who recently donated $25,000 to secure the naming rights to the new 3rd Floor President’s Suite. A group of 70s and 80s alumni have also launched an effort to secure the new kitchen in honor of Brother Rudy Carey; that campaign has so far raised $32,000 of its $50,000 goal.
To make a donation or pledge online, please visit the ATΩ Delta website by clicking here. To donate by check, make the check out to ATΩ Capital Fund and address it to:
UVA Fund
c/o Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity
P.O. Box 400314
Charlottesville, VA 22904
To learn more about the Capital Campaign, please contact John Sweeney at JohnHSweeney@gmail.com or visit www.ATODelta.com.
Colin Cantwell, Worthy Chaplain
In an ordinary semester, the Worthy Chaplain focuses on planning and organizing brotherhood events. However, due to this semester’s reduced social schedule, I have been able to push the position in a slightly new direction by organizing professional development events for the brotherhood. We have reinvigorated our alumni LinkedIn group, which had been dormant for a few years, and offered headshots on the Lawn (taken by alumnus DJ Braye of the Alpha Psi pledge class). We also helped the brotherhood through the recruitment process for internships and jobs by offering resume reviews before career fairs as well as mock interviews.
Our most exciting professional development event of the semester was a career panel featuring several recent alumni from different majors and fields, such as software development, electrical engineering, venture capital, and management consulting. Not only did this event have fantastic turnout from the brotherhood, but we also invited first-year potential new members who we have befriended over the course of the fall semester and showed them that ATΩ is a place where they can work towards their professional goals. Thank you to all the alumni who sat on the panel, which the Actives found incredibly valuable as they consider their future careers. I am proud of what we’ve accomplished so far and hope to continue these efforts into the spring and beyond.
Matthew Nettleton, Philanthropy Chair
During a normal semester, ATΩ Delta hosts a philanthropy for the Charlottesville SPCA called “Taus for Paws”. We organize festival games, borrow some dogs from the SPCA for the day, and provide Raising Cane’s chicken for a fun-filled afternoon event in Mad Bowl. Though Covid made this nearly impossible to do, we saw this as a way to get creative and try something new.
Confronted with a primarily virtual semester, the Philanthropy Committee put together ATΩ Delta’s first ever Fantasy Football philanthropy. With 48 participants across three leagues consisting of 24 active Brothers, 17 Delta Alumni, and 7 first-years, we ended up raising $700! Once the season is over, the winner of each league will determine where to donate the league’s pot from the following list of local philanthropies: the Legal Aid Justice Center, Charlottesville Albemarle SPCA, UVA Hospital, St. Baldricks, and the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation. This event served as a great way to keep in touch with the brotherhood, recruit first-years, and give back to the community and we hope to expand this event in the future!
Kevin Moccia, Social Chair
This semester, the Brothers of the Delta Chapter got creative with the events we held due to Covid. A recurring favorite of the brotherhood in the warmer months of the semester was heading to the King Family Vineyards on Sunday mornings to watch the weekly Polo matches. We carpooled together and set up plots around the Polo field, often staying for a game or two on the warm days, to get some much needed time outside while remaining socially distant. Besides these weekly trips, we began using the backyard in a lot of creative new ways! Our House Manager, Ian, set up a fire pit and Brother Chao built a mini-golf course for the Masters Tournament. On Saturdays, we’d often put a TV out in the backyard to watch the UVA football games, and, later at night, we’d sit around the fire pit. Ian and the Beta Beta class built a new fence for the side of the house, which made the backyard feel more homey and welcoming. On occasion we faced Covid scares, and in those moments we would all stay home and get together on Zoom to chat and play some video games like Among Us or Fall Guys together. While it was definitely a difficult semester and a challenge to keep the brotherhood together, we ATΩ Deltas certainly didn’t let that hold us back.
