Ball State's annual Greek Week will kick off today as a way for members of Greek Life to showcase who they are.
The events start Wednesday with an "X Factor" theme variety show at 9 p.m. in Ball Gymnasium. The $1 admission cost will go straight to Cardinal Greenway.
"It's a week of events that kind of bonds the greeks together," said Justin Friend, a Greek Week Steering Committee member. "And not only just for greeks, but to show the community and Ball State University what greeks do, how we give back and to just show all the different aspects of Greek Life," Friend said.
Friend said Greek Week is not an entire week because they want the participants to focus on their academics. All events are open to the public.
The Greek Games will be at 7 p.m. on Thursday on the University Green. Friend said it will include activities such as egg tosses and tug of war. Students can sign up for this event until today 5 p.m. today.
Friday is Service Day, when students can work at Cardinal Greenway. They will meet at Cardinal Greenway, located at 700 E. Wysor St., and will work from 3 to 6 p.m.
"We are really wanting to show what we do in the community," Friend said. "We're trying to preserve and clean up one of Muncie's greatest features."
The fifth annual McKinley Mile, the final event for Greek Week, will be on Saturday from 12 to 5 p.m. This is the first year that Lambda Chi Alpha will be putting on the event.
This is also the first year that Cardinal Greenway will benefit from the proceeds.
Although registration to participate in the bike race was due Friday, students can still participate in the street fair with inflatables, activities and food.
The greek councils will be operating a corn hole tournament and fraternities and sororities will have tables set up. They have encouraged alumni to come back to see Ball State.
"We just want to show that it's not all about recruiting; it's what we do as Greek Week," Friend said.
For greeks, the week will wrap up on Sunday with a Grand Chapter at 7 p.m. in John R. Emens Auditorium, in which all fraternities and sororities will participate. This will include an awards ceremony.
"It's really nice because Emens gets filled," Friend said. "We get to see how many greeks there actually are on campus, which there are a lot."
Not only is Grand Chapter the event that committee chair Mallory Cheever organized, it is her favorite event of the week, she said. As a fifth year senior, Cheever said she has attended Greek Week every year of her college career.
Cheever said Greek Week is a good time for the greek members to celebrate who they are and their accomplishments.
"The tradition of Greek Week means quite a bit to me," Cheever said. "For me, it means that it's a good week for the community to come together and kind of show our unity and not just our separate chapters to the outside community - the campus community, the Muncie community."
Cheever and Friend both commented that the week showcases what the greeks as a whole are really like, and not how the media portrays them to be.
"We all have different chapters but we are all still apart of the same organization and have the same values that we stress with the community and bettering ourselves," Friend said.
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