Greek Council donates $12,000 to Early Learning Center

A dozen Early Learning Center students join (back, from left) junior Nora Banks, sophomore Katie Saya, Ann Draper, assistant to the ELC director, junior Christopher Stockwell, Karen Rucker, ELC director, senior Francisco Cruz, junior Dave Tully, junior Alex Chew, senior Mike Russo and senior Keith Nemzer at the check presentation.

1:17 p.m., June 5, 2007--The Greek Council at the University of Delaware raised a record $12,000 during Greek Week from April 23-28 and donated the money to UD's Early Learning Center (ELC). Officials of the council, which brings together all fraternities and sororities, presented a check to Karen Rucker, ELC director, on Thursday, May 24.

“We help different organizations every year and this year we chose the ELC because of the service that it provides to children as a proactive approach to improving their lives,” Dave Tully, a junior political science major and president of the Greek Council, said.

This year's Greek Week, which was moved to the Bob Carpenter Sports/Convocation Center on the South Campus from the smaller Carpenter Sports Building off North College Avenue, drew more than 4,000 participants and doubled the amount of money raised last year, Matt Lenno, assistant director of student centers and adviser to fraternity and sorority life, said.

“It's great that our students choose to give back to the local community and to the University community,” Lenno said. “This is good, because a lot of students and the surrounding community see members of Greek organizations as partiers and drinkers, but they are philanthropists and about 75 percent of what they do is community-oriented.”

Rucker said the generous donation will go a long way in funding events and activities that directly benefit children at the ELC.

“We are overwhelmed by the generosity of the Greek Council,” Rucker said. “The need for our services for children and their families is always growing and such support will make a real difference.”

Now in its third year of service to children ages 6 weeks to 12 years, the center provides full-day, year-round services for infants, toddlers and preschoolers, before- and after-school care, a full-day summer camp program and a kindergarten program for older children, Rucker said.

The center, which opened on June 14, 2004, with a commitment to serve a diverse population including children living in poverty, those with a diagnosed disability and children in foster care, also provides research and clinical opportunities to students in majors such as early childhood education, physical therapy and psychology.

Classrooms in the state-of-the-art facility are outfitted with the latest observation equipment so that students and researchers can study the children as they learn and play.

Article by Martin Mbugua
Photo by Sarah Simon