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‘It’s About Giving Back’: Auburn Chapter Hosts Easter Egg Hunt for Surrounding Community Each Year

She had never owned a hula hoop before. So when the young girl was handed her first one, she did not know what to say or feel. Instead, her eyes started to water, she looked up at the member of Lambda Chi Alpha, standing alongside their steadfast chef, and said a simple thank you. Though it was a simple gesture, it meant the world.

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Every year around Easter, the Omega chapter at Auburn University hosts a large Easter egg hunt and barbecue cookout for the children in the surrounding community. The event has been going strong for the past five years but started from a simple request from the chapter’s chef, Rob.

Rob has been cooking for the chapter for upwards of 15 years, and all of the members agree he feels like part of the family. So when he came to the men with an idea to give back to the families in the area, they immediately said yes.

The event has grown ever since. This past March, the members were able to hide over 600 eggs for the children, filled with various goodies. Chapter members also provide toys every year for the children (things such as basketballs, soccer balls, and yes, hula hoops) and spend a few hours playing with them.

“It’s an event I absolutely adore, to be able to spend time with the kids and actually have a little bit of an impact and let them have a ball of a day,” said Davis Voecks, High Theta.

Voecks, now a junior, has been participating in the egg hunt/barbecue since his freshman year. He says that little girl that was incredibly thankful for a hula hoop has stuck with him ever since.

“It’s kind of what we stand for,” said Voecks. “It goes past the point of being a chapter that people recognize around campus, it’s about giving back.

“It’s giving back to the people you live with and the people in your community. They support you by allowing you to come into the university, so we give back to the community that lives around us and essentially runs the place.”

While the Easter egg hunt started as a small gathering, it has become one of the chapter’s largest events each year. In addition to the hunt, the members are planning a haunted house event for the same children. They are also looking forward to partnering with Alpha Gamma Delta in a joint meal packaging occasion to benefit Feeding America later this year.

Service is a key part of Lambda Chi Alpha’s anatomy, and the Auburn men embrace this idea with open arms. Because what might seem to be the smallest gesture just might make someone else’s day a little bit brighter.

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