I spent the weekend at the convention of the Illinois State Chapter of P.E.O. which took place in Springfield. I had a wonderful time. I rode to and fro with the daughter of our neighbor. She and her family moved back to town a few years ago but our paths did not cross until the recent P.E.O. Founders’ Day brunch when we sat next to one another. “And why do you think it was that I spent some of my childhood birthdays at the Holiday Inn in Vincennes, Indiana?” she asked. Of course, I knew the answer. Her father served as the Grand Sage (President) of Sigma Pi. Vincennes University is where Sigma Pi was founded and until very recently Vincennes was home to the fraternity headquarters.
The Illinois State Chapter of P.E.O. has a state project, the Lulu Corkhill Williams Friendship Fund. Assistance is given to both men and women who are in need. (All of the International and other Illinois State P.E.O. projects are open to women only.) At the projects dinner on Saturday evening, when recipients whose lives were changed by a gift from P.E.O. tell their stories, it was likely the first time that a young man was one of the speakers. He is now studying firefighting at a Peoria area college due to the gift from “Lulu.” (For more information on “Lulu” see http://wp.me/p20I1i-1o4)
The Lulu Corkhill Williams Friendship Fund Committee members with the young man who was awarded a grant from the committee. (Photo courtesy of Nann Blaine Hilyard)
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Congratulations to Marie Delgado, a member of Alpha Sigma Alpha, who was crowned Miss Alaska over the weekend. To keep track of the sorority women who will be competing for Miss America 2015, please see http://wp.me/P20I1i-1eS. If you know of others (the info is sometimes hard to find), please let me know. State winners will be added to that post as soon as the information is available.
The Miss USA competition will take place on June 8. The list of sorority women who are competing (as far as I know) is at http://wp.me/p20I1i-1eY.
© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com, 2014. All Rights Reserved.
