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Hello! My name is Michele Darrow. I am the former president of theAlpha Beta Gamma chapter of Alpha Phi Omega at Knox College . Let me tell you a little bit about us.

“The purpose of this Fraternity shall be to assemble college students in a National Service Fraternity in the fellowship of principles derived from the Scout Oath and Law of the Boy Scouts of America; to develop Leadership, to promote Friendship and to provide Service to humanity; and to further the freedom that is our national, educational and intellectual heritage” (Alpha Phi Omega Pledge Manual, pg 4).

I would like to explain how we at Alpha Beta Gamma chapter manifest these purposes here in Galesburg . I’ll start with Service because it is the main way in which we identify ourselves. There are four types of service identified by Alpha Phi Omega: service to the campus, service to the community, service to the nation, and service to the members. We are responsible for the Blood Drives that happen three times a year on Knox’s campus. We also have members who walk dogs at the Humane Society each week. Our local cause is FISH Food Pantry. We generally have a food drive linked to our annual formal dance. We also have a Book Co-op on campus to help reuse textbooks from year to year. And this year some of our members are traveling to Guatemala to help with a community project and to teach English in a rural school.

Friendship is a much harder purpose to describe. This purpose does not serve to force every member to be friends with every other member. Instead the idea behind friendship is to create shared experiences and an understanding of the fraternity’s history and goals. These understandings and experiences can then be used to link every member together towards a common goal of service. Ways in which we foster friendship include progressive lunches/dinners where each apartment or house we stop at is responsible for a portion of the meal, icebreakers night with the new pledges, open swim each week, study hours in the library, family dinners or informal, unplanned events.

The last purpose is Leadership. This goal is accomplished through activities taken on within Alpha Phi Omega and through a leadership program provided by Alpha Phi Omega. Each individual within our fraternity is given the chance to take on a leadership role through an executive board position such as President, VP Service, or VP Membership or through chairing or being a part of a committee such as the Blood Drive , Run-A-Thon, or Historian committees. Each member of Alpha Phi Omega is also given the opportunity to participate in a national leadership program known as APO LEADS. This program consists of five workshops of varying lengths. Each workshop focuses on different aspects of leadership training such as conflict management, and personality styles.

Michele Darrow
Former President