Franchesca Perez
Staff Writer
Troy University’s Omega Psi Phi fraternity is holding a bottled water drive in an effort to help supply water to victims of the South Carolina flooding.
Hurricane Joaquin brought on severe storms and record rainfall, leaving devastation in South Carolina in early October.
According to CNN reports, 11 people have been declared dead—seven drowned, and four died in traffic accidents.
After hearing of these events, members of Omega Psi Phi said they felt led to uplift the South Carolina community.
Zach Calhoun, a senior mathematics major from Mobile and president of Omega Psi Phi, shared how the idea of the water bottle drive was formed.
“Omega Psi Phi is known nationally for doing an outstanding amount of community service events,” Calhoun said. “Our chapter adviser, Derrick Brewster, suggested the idea. Having one of our own chapter members, Rashad Dillard, come from South Carolina was the final push.”
Omega Psi Phi is a Christian-based fraternity with four cardinal principles: manhood, scholarship, perseverance and uplift.
“We simply decided to uphold these principles by uplifting the South Carolina community,” said Rashad Dillard, a junior psychology major from Greer, South Carolina. “It’s important to help others who can’t help themselves.
“It’s not just to do it for recognition. We do it because we are called to.”
In partnering with the office of student services and the American Red Cross, the fraternity hopes to fill a trailer with cases of water and deliver it to the Red Cross Montgomery chapter, which will then deliver the water to South Carolina.
Scotty McBride, a senior broadcast journalism major from Leroy and member of Omega Psi Phi, challenges students to always be grateful and to keep the needs of others in mind.
“I think it is important to give back to the community because we often complain about things we don’t have when there are people who have it worse than us,” McBride said.
“When I was growing up, my school didn’t even have textbooks that we could take outside of the classroom to study from, so it’s important to remember that other people have it worse than us.”
The brothers of Omega Psi Phi will be collecting cases of bottled water at the Trojan Center every day until Nov. 17.
Any questions or concerns may be directed to Calhoun at zcalhoun101693@troy.edu.