STAR: Lip Jam Raises Over $30,000 For Charity

Article STAR: “Lip Jam Raises Over $30,000 For Charity“ From The Sonoma State STAR written by Sache Wedner

On the evening of Feb.  24 at the Green Music Center, both students and family members arrived, slowly filling the empty seats in anticipation of this year’s Lip Jam.

LipJam is an annual lip sync and dance competition by different fraternities and sororities at SSU, hosted by Alpha Gamma Delta. In addition, it is also a fundraiser where all funds go to the Alpha Delta Gamma Foundation’s mission to fight hunger across the country.

This year’s Lip Jam theme was Billboard 100, where participants had to perform mashups of different Billboard 100 artists, ranging from Bruno Mars, Doja Cat, Pitbull, and more. Despite seeming like a simple dance competition and philanthropy event on the outside, it is so much more than that to the participants.

“There are a couple of different ways that I think about it, and obviously it’s a very big philanthropy event, and the fraternities and sororities take it very seriously because it’s all a charity event. But it’s supposed to be lighthearted at the same time, and we had a lot of fun planning.” states fourth-year Communications and media studies major Daniel Dinerman.

While the planning of these events did require hours of hard work from all parties involved, the experience was something that brought all the Greek organizations and every person involved closer together.

Fourth-year psychology Isabella Gartner, one of the Lip Jam coordinators, said that despite the intimidating amount of workload, something great was still produced from it.“I loved the unification of the other greek organizations and really wanted to have a closer greek life as a result, which I think we accomplished.”, said Gartner.

“Going into it, this was my first lip jam, so I didn’t have any expectations and thought it was just dancing.”, said first year computer science major Jadon Berkson, “But as we were getting closer to the experience, I began to see the meaning of it and got closer with my brothers, and winning made it all the more special”.

As for what the audience members got out of the show, the brothers and sisters of the various organizations hope that people had a fun time first and foremost, while also taking into account that all the money is going towards a great cause. In addition, the other goal is to give some insight in regards to what Greek life is all about.

Fourth-year psychology major, Maia Madrigal-Hernandez, another one of Lip Jam’s coordinators, hopes that people recognize how important philanthropy is to Greek life. “This event not only has members of Alpha Gamma Delta working to raise money to fight hunger, but most greek life organizations on campus are also working hard to bring this event to life and support our philanthropy,” said Hernandez.

“Greek life is very interesting at this school, and not a lot of people know what goes on behind the scenes,” said fourth-year history major Joshua Chavez. However, considering the fact that a lot of people attend LipJam, it’s a great opportunity to show what Greek life is really about and what each organization brings to the table.

Even though the various Greek organizations participating gave it their all, only a few could claim victory in the end. At the show’s end, the winners were announced with Alpha Epsilon Pi winning both People’s Choice Award and Best Fraternity Performance, and Gamma Phi Beta winning Best Sorority Performance. On top of that, the event was also a huge charitable success, with over $30,000 being raised to combat hunger through ticket sales, people’s choice donations, and the penny wars.