AU fraternity Pi Kappa Phi anticipates several hundred people will attend its Armed Forces Wheelchair Basketball Game this Thursday, according to Inter-fraternity Council Public Relations Chair and Pi Kap brother Adam Tager.
The fraternity hopes to raise $10,000 for charity, Tager said.
The basketball game will be the largest philanthropic event Pi Kap has planned in its approximately five-year history at AU, according to Event Chairman James Fine. The fraternity, which partnered with the United States Olympic Committee Paralympic Military Program, expects about 400 people to attend, but he said Fine hopes more will attend.
“We wanted this to be open to more than just a Pi Kap event ... we’re looking to make it a campus-wide event,” he said.
This event is the first of its kind to take place in D.C., Tager said. Forty Pi Kap brothers created and managed the event, he said. Veterans being treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for injuries suffered in Iraq and Afghanistan will play a game of wheelchair basketball in Bender Arena against veterans being treated at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.
“As a campus, we must recognize that these wounded warriors are our peers,” Pi Kap President Nicholas Jablonski said in a press release. “Supporting our veterans is frequently spoken about, yet the general public does not often have the opportunity to support our veterans first-hand. This event gives us this opportunity.”
While planning the chapter’s philanthropic event for its preferred charity, Push America, Fine said he looked for local teams in the area and discovered one at Walter Reed. The game was going to be a scrimmage up until about a month ago, he said, until he learned the Brooke Army team was already scheduled to be in the D.C. area this weekend.
“It’s just friendly competition,” he said. “It’s also a different element than [the Walter Reed team is] used to because they don’t normally play outside Walter Reed.”
The event is free to attend, but donations are encouraged, Fine said.
“We’re really excited about this,” he said. “We’ve never done anything close to this. And we’re bringing attention to the veterans themselves, which is something you don’t usually see at our university ... So we’re excited to have a new way to show our support for them.”
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