On Memorial Day weekend, I thank the men and women who gave their lives so that others could live. World Wars I and II had a profound effect on the fraternity system. Many fraternity men went off to war. The options for sorority women were much more limited during those two wars. Some women enlisted in the avenues of service which were open to them, but the vast majority kept the home fires burning and did what they could here at home.
The following article “Service in Common” was published in the March 1945 Arrow of Pi Beta Phi. Nita Day Carmin, the Exchange Editor, had digested the information in the other the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) magazines. Although this was published toward the end of the war, I suspect the information presented dated from 1943 and 1944:
Practically every magazine of the women’s fraternities features their women in service and their war time philanthropy and work. The men’s magazines all have long lists of men in service and now each issue has a casualty list of wounded, dead, and missing – Sigma Alpha Epsilon has the longest column with 279 deceased and 57 missing in action and 55 prisoners of war.*
She then went on to enumerate the programs of the National Panhellenic Conference organizations:
Delta Delta Delta‘s two war projects are funds for the United China Relief and a General War Service Scholarship Fund to train leaders for the post-war world.
Conferences at Colorado Springs and Chicago took the place of Conventions for the Alpha Phis during the past summer. Their 4 point program – afghans, stamps, emergency fund, and war nursing scholarships, has continued with enthusiasm and cooperation from individuals and chapters. They are discontinuing their Cadet Nursing Corps scholarships and embarking on work with the Chaplain Service Corps.
Lt. Commander Nancy V. Forsman, University of Nebraska, is Kappa Delta‘s highest ranking officer. She acts as liaison officer in the Ninth Naval District. They feature their magazine agency as a money raising project and last year realized over $3,800.00 in commissions for their Chapter House Fund.
Kappa Kappa Gamma‘s war interests are around their ten Service Women’s Centers located in strategic cities where women in service find hospitality.
Alpha Chi Omega is the sponsor of Nursery or Child Care Centers in Detroit and Milwaukee. The majority of the children enrolled have mothers who are working at essential war jobs. At the National Council Meeting of Alpha Chi Omega, a training school for province officers was held in lieu of a Convention.
The Billet Fund of Alpha Gamma Delta, when completed, will provide a home spot available to any member of the fraternity.
Delta Gamma‘s fraternity project is the Nursery School for Visually Handicapped Children. Afghans for hospitals have been an alumnae project. Their province conference centered around a discussion of the justification of the ‘Fraternity System in Time of War.’
Highlight of the Workshop conducted by National and Province officers of Alpha Delta Pi, in June in Chicago at the War Service Brunch was the talk given by their Ensign Lois Swabel of the Waves on ‘Contributions College Trained Women Are Making to the Armed Services.’ All Alpha Delta Pis have participated with zest in the organization’s national projects – the pre-Pearl Harbor ‘Thumbs Up’ campaign, the maintenance of an ambulance in the British Isles, the Red Cross kit bag program of recent date. As community members Alpha Delta Pis have cooperated on all projects designed to meet local emergency needs-serving as air raid wardens, plane spotters, canteen workers, nutrition instructors and other needed volunteer personnel.
Alumnae of Sigma Kappa have interested themselves in making U.S.O. scrapbooks. Their goal is 50,000 and more than half that number have been finish and delivered.
National Council and province conventions substituted for a national convention with the Phi Omega Pis. Plans were made to sponsor a money making project for their Ambulance Fund.*
Recommendation for a continuance of their war work with children was made by the Grand Council of Alpha Omicron Pi. They established a chairmanship of public affairs to create an interest in citizenship in their active chapters.
Purchase of a Mobile Canteen is the war project of Theta Upsilon, to be given either to the Red Cross or the Salvation Army.*
‘Preparation for Tomorrow and the Four Roads to Reconstruction’ was the theme of the Officer’s conference of Phi Mu. In addition to philanthropies they propose to award scholarships in the four fields of occupational therapy, social service, medicine, and nutrition. They also have worked out a national hostess plan, designed to help Phi Mus who must travel or change their residence during the war emergency. Their magazine publishes a complete list of Phi Mu hostesses in the leading war centers of the U.S.
Chi Omega‘s National Achievement Award for 1944 was awarded to Dr. Florence B. Seibert for her distinguished research in the field of tuberculosis. Feeling that winning the peace is the most vital issue of our time, their Eleusis contained the Dumbarton Oaks Proposals.
The first organization permitted to sponsor the symbolic campaign for rehabilitation of the wounded is Gamma Phi Beta. Their goal is to sell $1,000,000 in War Bonds.
*For more information on these two organizations, see NPC Organizations Which No Longer Exist.
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