Sigma Sigma Sigma was founded on April 20, 1898, at the State Female Normal School in Farmville, Virginia (now Longwood University). The founders are Lucy Wright, Margaret Batten, Elizabeth Watkins, Louise Davis, Martha Trent Featherston, Lelia Scott, Isabella Merrick, and Sallie Michie.
Violets from my yard.
At the 1931 convention, the entire membership was asked to make a yearly contribution on Founders’ Day, birthday pennies to correspond to the sorority’s age. The funds would be used to support a library in the John Randolph School, a rural school which was associated with Tri Sigma’s founding institution, then known as Farmville Teachers College. This is an early literacy project undertaken by a Greek-letter organization.
The November 2, 1932 issue of The Rotunda. the Farmville Teachers College newspaper. Its tagline was “We Teach To Teach.”
On October 29, 1932, Mabel Lee Walton, National President, along with Pauline Camper, dedicated the library. Two hundred and fifty books were presented to the school. At the end of ten years, another 8,000 volumes were added, making the library one of the best rural school libraries in the state.
In the mid 1940s, the Cumberland County high schools were consolidated. At that time, the books for high school age students were sent to the new high school. The books at the elementary school had to be recatalogued. Tri Sigma funded this endeavor. In the 1950s, Tri Sigma was still purchasing magazine subscriptions and book units for the elementary school. I am not sure of the year in which the funding of the library stopped, but I would say, late 1950s or 1960s. If a Tri Sigma has information for me, I’d love to include it.
Other posts about Tri Sigma include this one about the Robbie Page Memorial Fundhttp://wp.me/p20I1i-LB and one about Mabel Lee Walton http://wp.me/p20I1i-8j.
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© Fran Becque, www.fraternityhistory.com. 2014. All Rights Reserved.
