News: UW-Madison Campus

AEPi’s Chili for Chile event raises $650 for disaster relief

Members say event was planned quickly but very successful for fraternity
AEPi’s Chili for Chile event raises $650 for disaster relief

Courtesy of Jeff Herscott

Fraternity members estimate 150 to 200 people attended AEPi’s Chili for Chile fundraising event.

University of Wisconsin students gathered Saturday to donate money and test their chili cooking chops at Alpha Epsilon Pi’s Chili for Chile earthquake relief event.

The event raised money for Chile relief to be donated through B’nai B’rith International. AEPi President Jeff Herscott said the event raised $650 through selling bowls of chili for $5 and sodas for $1, as well as personal donations from AEPi members.

Herscott said the event greatly exceeded his goals.

“I’m just really glad that a lot of people showed up,” he said.

The fraternity also plans to donate the leftover sodas to a local food pantry, Herscott added.

The chili was made by fraternity members and donated by Amy’s, The Memorial Union and Fresh Madison Market.

AEPi Philanthropy Chair and UW sophomore DJ Kornblau said the event was planned very quickly. He said their philanthropy contract was put into Interfraternity Council Tuesday and was easily approved.

He said the fraternity immediately knew they wanted to do a fundraiser for Chile relief.

“Chili for Chile was a catchy title, so we kind of ran with it,” Kornblau said.

Kornblau estimated around 150 to 200 people attended the event, which began at 3 p.m. At 5:30 p.m., although most of the chili was gone, people continued to roam in and buy bowls.

In addition to selling bowls of chili, the event also hosted a chili cook-off. UW sophomores Lisa Murchie, Ryan Hudnall, a former on-camera reporter for The Badger Herald, and Andrew Steckler won the cook-off with their Dirty South Arkansas chili, the recipe for which was provided by Hudnall’s grandmother.

Herscott said he hoped the event would show AEPi is truly a philanthropic association that strives to do good for the community.

“We’re trying to show the Madison community that we’re not the fools we appeared to be in the paper,” Herscott said.

He added in light of the fraternity’s recent suspension, he thinks IFC and Judicial Board are looking for them to stay out of trouble, which he believes will not be a problem for the fraternity.

7 Comments | Leave a comment

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This is what a charity looks like.

Good job AEPi

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I ate the winning chili and it was delicious!!

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Hey everyone, look! The Badger Herald is running an article portraying the Greek community in a good light!

run for the hills!

but seriously,

AEPI: Good job. Like every student organization, you occasionally mess up. Unlike every student organization, you put on an altruistic event like this that the entire campus can support.

Badger Herald: This should not be news. I know you need to fight the impression that your paper is “anti-greek”, but cmon.

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seriously credited

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This is not news. Every greek organization does this at least once, if not twice a year. I dont know if the BH is trying to befriend jewish people again, or if some AEP works for the BH. There is better things to write about if you want to be good to the greek community

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I really like the Chili for Chile line as well. Creative and catchy. I am trying to collect other creative fraternity fundraising campaigns… anyone have any other ones?

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Way to suck up to the community, AEPi. Also, I doubt they just sold sodas.

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