I’m sure many of you fellow alumni remember their glory days of Earthball and recollect the pride of winning, the agony of defeat, the battle cries, the obliteration of an opponent as you kamikaze the ball, and the muscles being used that you had long forgotten. Not only did we compete in this outstanding philanthropy this year, but we also helped organize and run it, after retiring Miracle Mile as our philanthropy, we joined up with Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority and the Delta Chi Fraternity in Earthball. This being our first year, it was a learning experience; however, while soliciting businesses, we were able to raise more money than either Delta Chi or Kappa Kappa Gamma. The event went smoothly and everyone from our house helped with the event, from coaching and refereeing, to keeping the brackets and water jugs filled. Ben Mense was especially helpful as he took charge of the main table and brackets and directed people and teams at the event. As this was a learning experience, we will be making some changes to this philanthropy to reduce the amount of injuries and number of broken Earthballs (they are very expensive). Also, the Delta Chi chapter will no longer be partaking in this philanthropy as their chapter has closed on the Kansas State campus. This will simplify things while doing the philanthropy and will raise more money for our Multiple Sclerosis Foundation.
    As a team competing in this courageous spectacle of manliness and power, we obliterated opponents and took home the trophy. From the house, we had eight returning All Greek players that were known around the field as Earthmovers. They could have been the starting line for K-State, or maybe they should have been. Keegan “Mongo” Wiens was a man among children, Brandon “Kamikaze” Morin was sacrificing his body for the team, and Greg “Oscar Meyer” Thiessen was a workhorse. At the end of the day, trophy in hand and muscles sore, we were proud to call ourselves Theta Xi.
    Overall, we led a successful philanthropy and competed as a team admirably. We raised over 700 dollars for the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, were in charge of over 250 men and women from the Greek community that were competing, and learned what it takes to run a successful philanthropy.

While last year's success in Earthball offered much promise for the future of Theta Xi philanthropies, it turns out that other plans were in store.  Due to some of the insurance complications with our ever-so-dangerous philanthropy, we were forced to move on after only one year of participation.  However, undeterred, we worked valiantly to find a new option to continue our support of the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation.  Still working with our sorority partners from last year, Kappa Kappa Gamma, we devised the idea of a dodge ball tournament instead.  While the economy has kept a number of businesses from contributing as in years past, we are grateful for our own Jeff Gill, owner of Tallgrass Brewery, graciously made a donation as a sponsor to our cause. 

 Run smoothly and effectively, our dodge ball was a success.  This did not mean, however, that we avoided all hiccups entirely.  We found very early that only one referee for each match was not nearly enough, as nearly all participants called for near-perfect officiating.  Rising to the call, more Theta Xi brothers committed themselves to the need for more adjudicators and kept a pair of unblinking eyes on the court to ensure maximum fairness for all involved.  With a total of 17 teams in the male division and 4 female teams, the dodge ball tournament provided a wide range of competition and was a promising first year for our fledgling philanthropy. In the male division, Delta Upsilon was the overall champion this year and in the female division Pi Beta Phi came out victorious.
 
 In the future, we hope to expand the field to even more teams, perhaps opening up a coed division if possible as well.  Raising more than 550 dollars for the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation alone, we have shown through trial by fire that we are able to continually contribute a significant amount of time and money to the hope for a cure of MS.  We hope to be able to continue this in the future and grow in our generosity and ability to help others.