Phi Delta Theta hosts annual Car Bash

The Phi Delta Theta Fraternity hosted their annual Car Bash activity for fall 2008 recruitment August 29.

“We do this activity at the end of recruitment because it’s a cool way to end the two weeks and not really any organizations on campus do this,” said Jason Baker, senior accounting and management major and president of Phi Delta Theta Fraternity. “Plus, it can also be a big stress reliever from all of the energy that goes into the first couple weeks of school.”

The event, which is a long standing tradition, took place at Wilson Park.

“The event had been around a lot longer than most of us,” said Kyle Bricker, sophomore health promotions major and member of Phi Delta Theta. “The event is always a big wrap-up of our big push for recruitment at the beginning of the school year. My favorite part about the whole activity is when we finally break the doors off the car.”

The fraternity waited until 6:30 to begin bashing the car. Until then, attendees listened to music and played games such as washers and football. New recruits cited several reasons for their interest in the fraternity and the bash.

“I wanted to join a fraternity because of the whole brotherhood support,” said Tim Young, freshman English education major and new recruit. “One thing that made their fraternity stick out is that they care about education more than sports.”

The fraternity received this year’s vehicle, a Jeep, from M&M Salvage. M&M prepared the car by puncturing the fuel tank to get out any gasoline that could pose a fire hazard. Since the car still had the majority of its windows intact, M&M took precautions to remove the glass safely by duct taping the glass and taking it all out in one piece.

Phi Delta Theta decorated the car with their Greek letters and colors using blue and white spray paint. At the bash, members and new recruits took turns hitting the car with sledge hammers.

Once the car was clearly destroyed, they rested and cooked hamburgers and hotdogs over the fire pits in the park. Although the attendance was not quite what they had expected, members were happy with how recruitment had gone.

“I think that by the end of recruitment we will have 15 people,” Baker said. “I think the reason for these high numbers does have a lot to do with our new house that was finally built and finished this last year. We expected 40 people at this car bash but we also know that we planned the event on a bad weekend since so many individuals often times go home for Labor Day, so that’s probably why there aren’t that many individuals here.”

Phi Delta Theta’s next big community event will be their annual pole-sit which will go from 6 a.m. on October 21 to the start of ESU’s homecoming game. The event is held to raise money for S.O.S.