Pi Kappa Alpha and the Greek community held an inaugural event on Friday called Pike Presents. The program was created in a better attempt to reach out to inner-city schools by providing those students an opportunity to receive gifts they normally would not receive.

Prior to Dec. 1, the students at Lonsdale Elementary were given a holiday wish list to fill out. They were told they could write down any one item they wanted for Christmas, but the stipulation was the gift had to be under $20. From there, the sororities that signed up for Pike Presents would then adopt a classroom at Lonsdale and divide up the wish lists among their sisters.

External Vice President of Pi Kappa Alpha Jack Silberman said the event was a success and worth the effort and time Pike put into making it happen.

“It was a great turnout from the sororities. We only had one not participate with the event,” Silberman said. “Each sorority sponsored one class, and Pike had to pick up the other six classes left. We only had two weeks to buy and wrap the gifts before the event.”

Sigma Kappa was one of the sororities who participated in the event.

“Pike Presents is a great way to end the semester,” President of Sigma Kappa Katie Logan said. “The event was such a worthy cause as it allowed sisters to step up and feel proud they made a contribution to underprivileged kids.”

Donations from individual sisters of the sorority allowed Kappa to start their shopping spree.

“We raised money by having each sister donate to the $200 needed to cover our class. Once we had the money, we were shopping for our gifts,” Logan said. “The gifts we had to buy were basically toys for boys and clothes for girls. Each child would only receive the one gift of $20, but if we could have spent more, we would have.”

Lonsdale Elementary Principal Lisa Light said she was “absolutely flabbergasted” with the event.

“I am very excited about Pike Presents,” she said. “I am very appreciative with how the university is creating ties with our school and that it will touch the lives of the 213 students here. The event is going to be a big surprise for the kids because they do not even know about it.”

Light said the staff would be sneaky in surprising the students.

“We are going to have a fire drill and have the kids walk outside and wait for the fire truck to pull in,” she said. “Sitting in the fire truck will be Santa Claus and behind Santa will be the UT students.”

All 213 students received a gift from Pike Presents. Light was very proud of her students because as they received their gifts, they said “Thank You.”

Pike Presents made a huge impact in the lives of just a handful of children. And even though the number of students was small, the huge fulfillment of making a difference in the students’ lives will stay with the Greek community for the new year or until Pike Presents returns.