February 19, 2019

Brothers,

We are writing to you today to give you an update on how the last few months at 1811 Lambeth Lane have been going! Life has been quite like a rollercoaster for every brother in our beautiful home, but we are so excited to introduce our newest pledge class and to set this fraternity on such a wonderful path forward! This newsletter has a lot of information, so please read carefully and reach out to our new Alumni Chair (who you’ll meet below) at cjm2xy@virginia.edu if you have any questions! Let’s begin.

Firstly, we have had the most successful year for Rush since I (Robbie) entered this fraternity three years ago. The brotherhood secured a strong, vibrant 18-person pledge class which is comprised of several second years, a transfer from Oklahoma, a bunch of CS prospects and a few pre-Comm students! They have been such a joy to be around over the last few weeks and we are so excited to go through the rest of the semester with them.

With such great highs in this fraternity, there are some periods where we encounter very difficult and tragic lows. Every brother in this fraternity, all of the new members, and the surrounding University Community was astonished to learn that one of our newest members, Nick Palatt , passed away January 31, 2020. It was devastating for the entirety of the brotherhood and we were so grateful to have each other to lean on during this difficult time. If anyone reading this would like to show their support, please contact Ben Webne, the Nu Charge Housing Corporation President at 703-625-7512. The undergraduates are all grieving heavily, but we know that Nick’s love for our fraternity and his high interest in joining should inspire us to move on to our duties for the fraternity.

Next, you all are likely aware that over the last two falls we have had our wildly popular Alumni Weekends. We wanted to give you as far ahead of an advance as possible, we are looking to have our Alumni Weekend during the weekend of the Virginia vs. North Carolina football game on October 3, 2020. Since this game is on a Saturday (and the past Alumni Weekends have been during weekends with games on Friday), we will likely have an event during Friday evening, Saturday during the day/night, and also during the day on Sunday. Please click here  to report your interest in the event!

While we are starting to look at how our social calendar will look for this semester, we thought some alumni might be interested in attending a tailgate for some Virginia Basketball games, with us! Check out this survey to learn more about the tailgates which we plan to do at our beautiful home.

If you’ve read this far, you might as well check out this awesome presentation done by our recently graduated fourth-year, Robbie Hodgson (the now former alumni chair). Robbie researched Dr. William Lambeth for the last 9-10 months and put together the findings from his research into a presentation to legitimize and preserve Lambeth’s bountiful history and also the history and architectural significance of the Theta Delta Chi fraternity house. Robbie presented his findings to the Colonnade Club on January 15, 2020. Click here to watch the video (it’s long, sorry) and feel free to reach out to Robbie at rsh5xe@virginia.edu if you have any questions about Lambeth or the history of the house!

Meet our new Alumni Chair, Connor McKechnie! Connor is a second-year student majoring in Biomedical Engineering and planning to minor in entrepreneurship. He served as one of our Rush Chairs and is now serving as our Alumni Chair. Back home in Virginia Beach, Connor works as a sales associate for Conte’s Bike Shop. When he isn’t studying for Organic Chemistry exams, you can find him out cycling, as he is also the Vice President of the Cycling Club. This summer, Connor plans to either stay in Charlottesville to do research or to work for a local startup. He is super excited to work with you to tackle the house’s current problems and foster a growing bond between the alumni and undergraduates. Again, feel free to reach out to Connor at cjm2xy@virginia.edu if you have any questions or feel lonely and just want to chat.

 

Now that you’ve been reminded of the architectural and historical significance of our beautiful home, we must alert to you that the house is in dire financial need! Most of you should have heard of the $18.11 monthly donation plan, you can sign up here to make very helpful and valuable donations to the house!Also, at that link you can make one-time donations if that works better for you. We need all the help we can get to ensure that the house stays afloat and also is prepared for the extensive renovations which will be necessary here in the next few years. Please reach out to Trip Colden III at 434-409-1705 for more explanation on the financial situation of the house. Trip is the Treasurer of the Nu Charge Housing Corporation.

That’s all, thank you so much for taking the time to read this message. Connor and I can’t wait to meet some more of you in person. Let’s start this decade off right!

ITB,
Robbie Hodgson ’20 (rsh5xe@virginia.edu)
Connor McKechnie ’22 (cjm2xy@virginia.edu)