LSU’s Pi Beta Phi sorority held its annual beach volleyball tournament, Arrowspike, on Sunday at Mango’s Outdoor Volleyball to raise money for its national foundation.
The sorority’s national philanthropic effort, Read>Lead>Achieve, helps to end childhood illiteracy.
According to the Pi Beta Phi Foundation, one out of four children grows up unable to read. Pi Beta Phi has been committed to improving childhood literacy for over a century.
MC Field, director of service and philanthropy for LSU chapter and a sophomore majoring in public relations, said the sorority takes action by fundraising, advocating and doing different literacy initiatives.
Arrowspike provided a fun, energetic environment while supporting a good cause. The tournament consisted of 17 teams made up of sorority members and their friends and family.
The competition began with pool play, which means groups (pools) of teams play a few games in a round-robin format, meaning each team plays every other team in its pool. After pool play, they added up the points and wins to form brackets. Bracket play was single elimination until the finals. Members of the winning team got a volleyball and the money they paid to register back.
Charlotte Cottrell, a senior animal sciences major, is a Pi Beta Phi and a member of the LSU women’s club volleyball team.
“I enjoy Arrowspike because not only does it help our philanthropy, it also allows me to incorporate something else I love into my sorority,” Cottrell said.
Cottrell’s team has won Arrowspike the past couple of years. She said she recruited other club volleyball players for her team and other teams.
Another Arrowspike player is public relations senior and Pi Beta Phi member Lucy Debosier. She has participated in the tournament all four years at LSU. Her father, Steven Debosier of Dudley Debosier Injury Lawyers, has supported his daughter and Pi Beta Phi by also playing all four years.
“I see all these cool girls doing some great stuff, and I’m really proud to be a part of this event,” Steven Debosier said.
Pi Beta Phi exceeded its goal of raising $25,000 from the Arrowspike event. Donations came from the tickets people bought to attend or from its various sponsors. Field said most of the sponsors are parents or local businesses that Pi Beta Phi members know personally.
Field explained that LSU Pi Beta Phi gives the money raised at Arrowspike to the Pi Beta Phi Foundation, and the foundation splits it into three categories. The Literacy Fund is for direct hands-on work with students in classrooms, such as supplying books and materials for underserved schools. The Friendship Fund goes toward helping Pi Beta Phi members that are from underserved families or communities, and the Emma Harper Turner Fund is for natural disaster relief.
LSU Pi Beta Phi chapter president Gabby Carter, a senior pre-med psychology major, emphasized that fundraising is not all her sorority does to support Read>Lead>Achieve. She said her chapter also focuses on the hands-on volunteer work.
For example, Pi Beta Phi has a four-week-long program every semester called Champions Are Readers. During this program, Pi Beta Phi members volunteer at local schools to work with children, mainly kindergarteners through second graders, on their literacy and reading comprehension.
“We do love to fundraise. We love these events, but there is something so much deeper to our philanthropy. I think that really sets us apart,” Field said.
