Greeks from all four councils mix and mingle Monday afternoon at the annual Greek picnic held at the Flagpole. (Stuart Palley)
Hundreds of students were at the Flagpole Monday evening for an evening of sun and fun with SMU’s Greeks. A special event open to all students, the Greek picnic is a rarity on the social calendar because it is not exclusively hosted by or for just one of SMU’s Greek councils, but rather it is a cooperative effort by all four councils: MGC, Panhellenic, IFC and NPHC.
“We’re trying to make it more of a whole Greek effort, we all came together to make it a better experience,” senior Abbie Steffler, president of the Panhellenic Council said.
This year’s entertainment was supplied by NPHC, which provided music and an introduction for the audience to dance. The attendees genuinely enjoyed the show, many remarking that it was a significant boost from last year’s picnic.
“We didn’t really have entertainment last year, just some music,” Steffler said.
As for the other Greeks, there were many happy to see improvements this year on all levels of the event, with mixed reactions over the last few picnics.
“I think it’s a vast improvement over last year; the entertainment, the food, the music, everything is a lot more welcoming,” Tri Delta sophomore Lesli Benefield said.
“It’s less intimidating for the freshmen this year, since we’re not in jerseys,” Tri Delta Jaquelyn Lay said in reference to the organization of the picnic last year.
The picnic was catered by Sonny Bryan’s Smokehouse this year, providing a brisket that many passers-by could not turn down. Also present was a promotional tent for Fuze, which was recently bought by Coca-Cola, giving away free beverages. As Coke owns the promotional and distribution rights for SMU, the representative from Fuze was excited about the opportunity to join the festivities and mentioned that SMU will likely become more familiar with Fuze and another Coca-Cola owned franchise, Vitamin Water, in the coming months.
Still, the food was a big attraction to many non-Greeks attending, which only helped to increase the numbers and help get the Greek community better integrated with the SMU student body as a whole. The turnout helped to serve the event’s purpose of bringing students, Greek or non-Greek, together.
“The feast was fit for a king,” sophomore Brent Walter said.
“The food was excellent… I’m meeting a lot of people who I hadn’t seen yet this year,” Pi Kappa Alpha junior David Dines said.
He was positive on the tone of this year’s picnic and was impressed with the improvements over previous years.
“I think it’s a great way for the Greek community to come together,” he said.
