Fierce competition and fun char­acterized Saturday’s dodgeball tour­nament to benefit the Morrisville Food Cupboard. The event was made possible by a collaboration between Leadership Options for Tomorrow: Sophomore Year Experience (LOFT: SYE) and Phi Delta Theta fraternity.

Three teams representing Col­gate’s Newman Community, LOFT and Phi Delt played. Phi Delta Theta’s team “Guacamole” took first, followed by Newman’s “Team Jesus.” Junior Alex Ulmer and soph­omore Kevin Gonzalez took both the titles for most valuable player and last man standing. First place won shirts donated by New York Pizzaria, second place won pizza from Oliveri’s, the Most Valuable Player won a sweatshirt donated by the Colgate Bookstore and last man standing won a Barge Canal Coffee Company gift certificate.

LOFT was the principal sponsor of the tournament, coming up with the idea for and publicizing the event and choosing the Morrisville Food Cupboard as the beneficiary. Being a “more experienced and established or­ganization,” as sophomore Samantha Frank put it, Phi Delta Theta provided vital guidance to LOFT in planning the event. They also helped run the O’Connor Campus Center tables, so­licited donations and reached out to other organizations to participate.

Sophomore Elisabeth Muehlemann explained why she chose the Cup­board as the recipient of the money raised.

“[The COVE] re­ceived an email from Morrisville that they had no food to give to people who need their services and that they were in dire need of help, so I mentioned it at a LOFT meeting and everyone thought it was a good cause to give the funds from our dodge­ball tournament to,” Muehlemann said.

Through team regis­tration and additional donations, $150 was raised for the Morris­ville Food Cupboard. Although organizers had wished more teams participated, they were proud of the tournament.

“I think it was a success,” Sa­mantha Frank said. “This was our first philanthropic event, so as a pretty small organization, I think that we did well.”

Senior Markes Gonzalez of Phi Delta Theta agreed.

“In my opinion, the event was a success…but the event was not nearly as important as the cause. We were able to contribute some­thing to the Morrisville commu­nity. Whether it was through our time or our donations, we want a better community for everyone,” Gonzalez said.

As of now, LOFT does not have any more plans to benefit the Mor­risville Food Cupboard directly, but they are working on an adopt-a-fam­ily program. Through this program, interest houses, Greek life and other campus organizations could sponsor a family during the holidays. Phi Delt is also interested in continuing their work with those served by the Morris­ville Food Cupboard. Although they have no concrete plans as of yet, Gon­zalez confirms that Phi Delt would be more than willing to do another, even larger event for the Morrisville Food Cupboard in the spring.

Contact Anna D’Alessandro at [email protected].