Sigma Alpha sisters brave rain for community service project

10:40 a.m., Nov. 6, 2003--In less than cooperative weather, members and members-to-be of Sigma Alpha, UD’s professional agricultural sorority, gathered on the lawn at 182 Orchard Rd. on Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 5, to do yard work and fulfill a community service requirement. The University rental property is the Newark home of Atlanta collector Paul R. Jones, who presented his world-class collection of art by African-American artists to UD in 2001.

Sigma Alpha sorority sisters and sisters-to-be who helped with the cleanup included (clockwise from top left): Andrea Leventry, AG ’04; Katie Ditmer, AG ’05; Amanda Pisano, AG ’06; Megan Johnson, AG ’06; and Jessica Slade, AG ‘05.

Wielding rakes and hedge clippers for the four-hour clean-up project, the sisters, wearing work gloves and T-shirts, raked wet leaves into piles, cleared rainspout gutters and trimmed back ivy.

“Sigma Alpha is a professional sorority, so we don’t sponsor social events or events with alcohol,” Andrea Leventry, second vice president of Sigma Apha, explained. “The sorority is designed to help us grow professionally and personally. Becoming a member is a six-week process that involves community service projects and fundraisers.”

Leventry, who is a senior majoring in plant science and agricultural education from Newark, added that the clean-up effort also was a way to improve the quality of life on campus. “We’re trying to help out and make the environment look better,” she said.

Other recent community service efforts by the sisters of Sigma Alpha have ranged from playing bingo with residents of Newark’s Gardens of White Chapel Nursing Home and visiting residents of the Mary Campbell Center in Wilmington.

Article by Becca Hutchinson
Photo by Kathy Atkinson

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