| 05 December 2009
After volunteering for the Three Rivers Domain Director position, Gamma Nu Alumnus PJ Best learned that one of the chapters in his domain had ceased to initiate new members. Feeling the need to correct this situation, he contacted current Gamma Nu President Phil Frandina and Upstate Domain Director Steve Nims to ask if Brothers of the Gamma Nu Chapter would be interested in initiating some of the Epsilon Rho Neophytes and then teach them the ritual. PJ would travel to Rochester from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a small group of the men from the Epsilon Rho Chapter, and then having been initiated and taught the ritual, could go back to IUP to initiate the rest of the Brothers.After agreeing that lending a hand would not only allow their chapter to extend the hand of fellowship to their brothers in need, but also give the them an opportunity to meet and develop friendships with brothers from another chapter, Phil and Steve felt that helping PJ would be the right thing to do. Early in the Fall 2009 quarter, PJ and Phil continued to discuss the logistics of the initiations and found a free weekend in December to host the event.
On Friday, December 4th, twelve Brothers from the Epsilon Rho Chapter along with Brother Best, traveled up to Rochester to the Gamma Nu chapter house to meet their hosts. The joyous greeting culminated with the Gamma Nu Brothers introducing a traditional Rochester late night delicacy to their new friends: the garbage plate - quite literally, at minimum 3 days worth of calories of pure bliss including two all beef patties, home fries, macaroni salad, liberal amounts of ketchup and mustard, and all of the fixings you could ever imagine, all combined on one plate and served with a side of bread and butter.
The following morning, the initiations were held at the Gamma Nu Chapter house with all the pomp and circumstance that an event such as this deserves. At one point, 5 Gamma Nu Chapter Presidents and 3 Domain Directors were taking part in the ceremony - it was truly unique. One of said Chapter Presidents, Dave Panish, was particularly excited to be in attendance as his cousin was one of the candidates for initiation. After the newly initiated Epsilon Rho Brothers were afforded a period of reflection, the special occasion concluded with the National post-ritual presentation on how the ritual is used in chapter functions, and in our daily lives. With the initiations and ritual discussion complete, Brothers from both Chapters left the chapter house to eat dinner and then reconvene at Dean's for the night to celebrate.
The Gamma Nu Brothers would like to thank PJ Best for thinking of them to help initiate their new friends from IUP. Without his passion and dedication to the fraternity, these men might have gone without ever been initiated. In addition, PJ offers his thanks to the Gamma Nu Brothers for hosting the Epsilon Rho Brothers during the weekend, and for making the initiations such a memorable event. The Brothers from both chapters look forward to the next time they can meet and further develop their bonds, and hope that in the future they have more opportunities to learn and grow with other chapters.