We believe in Philanthropy.
From the very start, our Oakland University Chapter of Sigma Pi Fraternity has been giving back to our local community in Southeast Michigan.
Thirty years ago as we were founded, our Chapter was making a difference.
From our chapter archives:
“On April 23, 1985, several members walked in a 20-mile Walk-a-thon for the March of Dimes, raising almost $400 to fight birth defects. Also, a few of the members began working at a bingo hall event that was operated by the American Diabetes Association (ADA). For the first couple years, four brothers worked every Friday night at that bingo hall, continuing philanthropy.”
Founding Brother Chuck Surinck tells the story that our Chapter became affiliated with the ADA by partnering with the Gamma Phi Beta sorority on OU’s campus. We were a backup for the sorority, but after a year we took leadership and continued on for several years with this as our charity of choice. Years later, he recalls how that bingo hall closed down and the Chapter moved on to working events at the Palace of Auburn Hills.
Still, diabetes remained close to our Chapter’s heart as the years went on.
At the time in the 80s, we had no direct personal connection to diabetes. But that would change over the years.
During the course of our first three decades, a handful of diabetes connections would materialize. Years after graduating, Chuck Surinck’s son was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. In the Alpha Alpha pledge class, Brother Mike Hoskins came into Sigma Pi as a lifelong Type 1, diagnosed as a very young child. He would bring that diabetes passion to the chapter in the early 2000s, organizing a summer car wash at a local Hooter’s restaurant where our Chapter helped raise $3,000 for the JDRF. Years later, we’d have two more brothers with T1D in the early and later 2000s.
While we didn’t realize it in those early years, diabetes was a cause that would become close to our Chapter’s heart.
We have also participated in multiple other charitable events and causes in our years at Oakland, and we look forward to continuing that philanthropic spirit as we move forward.
Brother Rob Ray (AA ’97) became an elected member of the Rochester City Council and in November 2017 was named the city’s mayor! In that city leadership capacity, Rob gave directly back to the OU community and he recruited many from our Undergraduate Chapter to help in local community activities during his time in leadership through 2019.
The Sigma Pi national philanthropy is Donate Life America, and our Zeta Pi Chapter is continuing its own philanthropic efforts with that charitable cause in mind. At the Oct. 28, 2017 home-game for the OU Football Club, we partnered with the team to recruit organ donors before and during the game — it’s part of a developing tradition our Chapter hopes to continue with the football club in the years to come.
Additionally, our Chapter raised awareness on kidney and organ donation, keeping with our National charitable cause but also to help Brother John Hendley who needed a life-saving kidney. That new kidney donation came to fruition in 2020, as a direct result of our Chapter’s philanthopic spirit and a call to brotherhood. Please see this page for more detail.
