First “Date a Delt” event, auction brings in students, community.
BY: Jose Perez
One of UNK’s youngest fraternity Delta Tau Delta made history on Thursday, April 11th by hosting their inaugural “Purple Tie Event” at the Buffalo County Fairgrounds east of Kearney. Despite the university being closed that day due to weather conditions, Delta Tau Delta still had plans to proceed with the event and not reschedule it for a later date.
The Purple Tie Event was Delta Tau Delta’s first philanthropy event where the members of the fraternity served unlimited macaroni and cheese with a toppings bar, as well as hosting an auction. The auction consisted of current members of Delta Tau Delta creating “date night” baskets for places around the Kearney area.
Brady Deprez, a sophomore Health Science major from Elkhorn, serves as the current president of Delta Tau Delta. Deprez oversaw many factors leading up to the event, given the fact that this was the first ever Purple Tie Event.
“Since the colonization in the Fall 2017 semester, we have been looking to host a big philanthropy event consistently,” Deprez said. “After talking to other brothers at conferences and events, we came up with this idea because it was a great way to raise money for JDRF and support local businesses. Supporting our philanthropy was a priority for us.”
The Purple Tie Event went well, but there was major concerns leading up to the event.
“There was a couple of challenges we faced, with one being the weather and unexpected speed bumps,” Deprez said. “With the snow day, we had to wait until the morning of to decide whether to postpone or keep going with the event. Along with that, we had no idea what to expect in terms of attendance and participation in the auction. We know what to do better for next year and I’m looking forward to hosting the event again with a year of experience.”
Delta Tau Delta members recognized what could be changed for their event in the future.
“The attendance was amazing and I can’t thank the UNK students and community enough for this,” Deprez said. “However, for next year I would like to get some alumni there and I would like to reach out to the community more by advertising to local business or getting on the radio.”
Ronald Gonzalez, a sophomore Recreation Management major from Albion, was also one of the many Delta Tau Delta members that helped out with the Purple Tie Event.
Gonzalez was very confident with the attendance being great after selling a good amount of tickets.
“It really wasn’t difficult selling tickets all. As soon as me and other members from Delta Tau Delta set up our table in the union, we were selling tickets left and right.”
Gonzalez was confronted by people that expressed their opinions on the philanthropic event. Fortunately, most of the feedback was positive.
“I heard a lot of great feedback; everyone that approached me was excited and told me that this was a great event,” Gonzalez said.“The best part for me would have to be the amount of people that showed up to support. This was our first time doing this event, so we didn’t really know what to expect.”