On Nov. 8, 2023, Kappa Sigma collaborated with the American Legion Post 400 to host a taco bar for Military heroes. Kappa Sigma members started cooking around 4:30 p.m. and served the food between 5:30- 6:00 p.m.
Gary Helmick, a member of the Sons of the American Legion and the Goodyear Veterans Association, explains what the American Legion is.
“The American Legion offers an opportunity for veterans and veterans families. The auxiliary is wives, spouses of veterans and sons and daughters of veterans. They have a place to go and veterans have a place to go and associate with each other, you know, hang out,” Helmick said.
Being able to collaborate with Kappa Sigma brought Helmick joy because of young people being educated on the matter and the idea of bringing young people into the mix.
“The Legion’s membership has been getting older. So to get younger people involved to understand what the American Legion is all about and to help the community,” Helmick said.
The reason Kappa Sigma collaborated with Post 400 this year is because each chapter gets a philanthropy, and Military Heroes is their philanthropy. Working with Post 400 allowed them to fulfill their philanthropy locally.
Miqueas Mazo, sophomore in math, history and philosophy, Homecoming and philanthropy chair of Kappa Sigma goes into why they chose Post 400.
Mazo also states that with COVID-19they haven’t been able to connect with the community, so they took this chance, and with them taking this chance they were able to form a relationship with them and hopefully build a bond to spread more help in the community.
“We want to get more involved in the community, and we saw this chance and we took it,” Mazo said.
Mazo and a few other Kappa Members organized this event with the help of the Alpha Delta’s house mother who contacted Mazo, because she knew someone at the post. Mazo went over to the post and asked if they needed help.
The Post 400 wanted to host a taco bar, so with the help of Mazo and other members of the Kappa Sigma fraternity got together to help raise money for the supplies. When it came time for the event the brothers were in the kitchen making tacos and helping with serving them.
Helmick talks about how Veterans Day is more about the families, and the importance of supporting them
“We want to celebrate them and show them that we appreciate their sacrifice for what they did for us,” Helmick said.
Mazo also goes into why he thinks it’s important to support Military Heroes.
“I find it very important to support the military heroes, because I come from a family of people who have served in the military, my grandpa, my stepdad as well as myself—so seeing how it has affected their lives. I think it’s important that we keep on supporting them because they have sacrificed so much,” Mazo said
Kappa Sigma holds many different types of fundraisers and events throughout their philanthropy week to help support military heroes.
Edited by Jeremy Ford and LeSha’ Davis
