By Sydney Brown and Lexi Matthews
The Boston University chapter of Sigma Alpha Lambda (SAL) will compete against the Binghamton University chapter starting Oct. 1 to kick off the SAL Rival Season tournament.
SAL, a national leadership and honors organization with chapters at 67 universities across the country, is dedicated to academic excellence and active citizenship in the chapters’ communities, said SAL National Initiatives and Social Media Coordinator Stephen Huff. SAL’s letters stand for service, achievement and leadership, Huff said.
Rival Season is SAL’s fall community service project in which SAL chapters are pitted against one another. During the month, each chapter competes to donate more nonperishable food items or donate more money to local food banks than its rival school.
This fall is SAL’s first-ever Rival Season, Huff said. The idea for the tournament arose following the popularity of a similar but smaller competition hosted last spring called “Rivalry Week.”
SAL Chapter Support Representative Denise Feikema said that the competition has been revived to be bigger, more complex and more involved. Unlike Rivalry Week, Feikema said Rival Season will last for one month, and it will be focused less on social media exposure and more on making contributions to the community through food donations.
“It’s about really doing something tangible and positive for the communities in which our chapters exist,” Feikema said, “so we’re really excited about it.”
Huff said he aimed to elevate Rivalry Week to incentivize participation of all chapters in the organization instead of only a few.
“It came from that idea of, ‘How do we do something like that but make it bigger?’” Huff said. “[The answer] was combining that with our bracket challenge competition we started in spring last year to make it something bigger and more involved.”
Rival Season will be part of Food Fight Against Hunger, an initiative founded by SAL in 2010 to raise awareness and advocate for those affected by hunger across the nation, Huff said.
40 million people in the United States struggle with hunger, according to the nonprofit Feeding America.
With its efforts, SAL hopes to alleviate some of this suffering while simultaneously building relationships between schools and communities, Feikema said. Additionally, she said she wants the competition to inspire SAL members to make more donations to their local food banks in the future.
“We hope that they will get a sense of pride and accomplishment that their chapter can make a community,” Feikema said, “that they really are having an impact on hunger in their own areas.”
Feikema said she views the event as not only a way for the members to improve their community, but also themselves.
“This is an opportunity to embrace your school spirit. You get to have fun with people at your school,” Feikema said. “But you’re also doing something where you can make a really big impact in your community.”
Before the competition kicks off in October, Feikema said she wants to give participants a few tips on how to get the most out of it.
“The best advice is to get the word out around your community,” Feikema said. “Don’t do it alone, get support from other students and faculty and people in the community.”
BU SAL chapter members did not respond to request for comment by press time.
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