Fraternity History & More

March 2, the first Monday in March, is NPC International Badge Day. It is a day for members to wear their respective NPC badges. If  “pin attire” is not worn, then it is perfectly acceptable to wear letters, those articles of clothing sporting the Greek letters.

The National Panhellenic Conference’s International Badge Day began in 1997.  In the spring of 1996, Nora M. Ten Broeck wrote an article about her experience after she wore her Alpha Sigma Alpha pin to work one day. The article appeared her sorority’s magazine, The Phoenix, and was titled “A Simple Solution – Wear Your Membership Badge Today.” Her NPC colleagues loved the idea and endorsed the project. The month of March was chosen because it is also National Women’s History Month.

I’m mentioning this today because I spend the month of March, Women’s History Month – #WHM2026, profiling #NotableSororityWomen. It will also look a little different this year. I am currently finishing up the fifth of a five-year commitment to P.E.O. I’m president of the Illinois State Chapter of the P.E.O. Sisterhood. Illinois has 304 chapters and 11,000 members and running the state chapter leaves me little time for much else. But please know that I can’t wait to get back to what I love best – writing the history of fraternities and sororities.

But I must say that in my P.E.O. travels these past four and a half years, I have met many sorority women who are also members of P.E.O. and that makes it even more fun.

Use #BadgeDay26 and #IWearABadge across social media.

How in the world can it be 50 years? I was initiated into Pi Beta Phi on January 20, 1976, but it seems like a day or two or maybe a week before yesterday.

I was a first generation college student, the daughter of an immigrant, my high school was lower middle of the road and I had no one I could turn to for figuring out anything about college. But I knew I wanted and needed to go to college. The guidance counselors weren’t of much help and I knew no one, save for the teachers in my high school, who were college graduates.

I worked on the high school newspaper and there was a two-week high school newspaper workshop at Syracuse University. I was able to get funding to go to the workshop and I fell in love with Syracuse and the campus (please note this was a summer workshop – I was also clueless about Syracuse winters). I was insistent that Syracuse was the best place for me. In retrospect, perhaps it wasn’t, but, then again, maybe it was. Regents’ financial aid, scholarships, loans and part-time jobs help pay my way.

When I went through recruitment at Syracuse University, it was on a whim and strictly to see the insides of the sorority houses. I had no intention of joining any group. Somehow I ended up feeling so at home at the Pi Beta Phi house. I often say it was like finding a comfortable pair of shoes – like when you try on a pair of shoes and your feet just know that it’s a great fit. And that’s how I felt in the Pi Phi house.

But when I say I was clueless about fraternities and sororities, please believe me. I had no idea. It took a long while for it to all settle in my head – that the organization survived only because of the women who did what had to be done, and did it willingly and earnestly. It took me a while to realize that every act of mine reflected credit or discredit upon Pi Beta Phi. And the knowledge that I was but one little link in a very long chain of sisterhood did not come to me in the beginning of  my Pi Phi journey, but it dawned on me eventually.

Before I was initiated on that January day, 50 years ago, I remember meeting some of the local alumnae at one of our pledge meetings. It was over dinner in the dining room and I thought to myself, “How strange. Don’t these women have a life? Why are they spending a Monday night having dinner at a sorority house?” A concept like that was totally foreign to me.

Little did I know that I would turn into one of those women! After all, it turned out that the almost four years I was a collegiate member pale in comparison to the 46 I’ve been an alumna.

I fell in love with the history of my chapter by looking through the old histories and the bound Arrows that were in the archives. I loved nothing more than to take one of those bound Arrows and sit in the second floor “smoker” and read (smoker was the term for the second floor landing with its sofa, arm chairs, end tables and ashtrays).

Due to the faith placed in me when I was a member of the chapter, and in having won the International Chapter Service Award, I felt that I should and must pay that faith forward. And I have tried to do that in the ensuing 46 years.

It came full circle the other day when I opened the Winter 2026 Arrow that was in the day’s mail. There was a letter to the editor, from an alumna from my chapter. Leigh Smith Charron was the Alumnae Advisory Committee chair when I was in the chapter. She was one of the women who had faith in me.

Then came a birthday card from the Pi Phi who was my randomly assigned roommate at the 1987 New Orleans convention. It was my first convention. We were both young mothers serving on Alumnae Advisory Committees and we just hit it off and stayed in touch all these years. We touch base at Pi Phi events whenever possible and anytime I’m near Bloomington, Indiana, I try to stop in to see her. She invited me to her alumnae club’s Founders’ Day event where Golden Arrows are honored. (I do belong to a very, very small alumnae club and I am the one who plans our very casual lunch get togethers and there is no way I would even think about planning an event to celebrate my being a Golden Arrow and this dear Pi Phi friend knows that).

My Pi Phi experience shaped me in ways I could never have imagined as that clueless freshman 50 years ago. Pi Phi’s Poet Laureate and Past Grand Council member, Evelyn Peters Kyle, a 1930s initiate of the Illinois Alpha chapter at Monmouth College, wrote Loyal Ties ten years before my initiation. But its closing words ring so true to me today:

From pledge to Golden Arrow year,
These loyal ties are always here.
So think what your life might have been,
If Pi Phi hadn’t said ‘Come In!’

A magnetic nametag honoring my Pi Phi and P.E.O. affiliations, designed, stitched and finished by my daughter Simone who is also a member of both organizations.

About 15 years ago, I was asked to write an article for the P.E.O. Record. I did not consider myself the best person to write said article, but a wonderful double sister (A P.E.O. and Pi Beta Phi) assured me I was the one to write it. That first very tentative “yes” led to wonderful opportunities within P.E.O. I then had the honor of serving on the Special Committee to Study Ceremonies and Meeting Procedures and later on the Sesquicentennial Book Committee as one of four co-authors of We Who Are Sisters.

Five years ago in the midst of pandemic cleaning (little else to do when everything was closed), I had time to read the inscription on a book given to me by a member of the Special Committee. A Past State President (PSP) of Oklahoma State Chapter encouraged me to think about state board service. It was something I never considered because Illinois is such a big state, both in size of the state and in terms of P.E.O. chapters. Illinois currently has 303 chapters and 11,000+ members. It is third in terms of membership and fourth in number of chapters. I knew it would be a very large commitment.

In the days after I read her inscription, I asked three special P.E.O.s to write the required recommendations. And then I could not give it a second thought because I had told them about it and I would feel awful telling them to forget the recommendations. I’d leave it to the nominating committee to make the decision.

Fast forward nearly four or so years. I led the Illinois delegation at the 77th Convention of P.E.O. International Chapter last week in Phoenix, Arizona. It was never on my bingo card. One of the thrills of this convention was to see the Oklahoma PSP who wrote that encouragement in the book she gave me years ago. I also saw the Pi Phi double sister who was insistent that I was the best one to write that article as well as two of the other coauthors of the 150th coffee table history.

I also had the opportunity to visit with sorority friends – favorite Kappa Kappa Gammas – lots of Thetas, Pi Phis (of course) and readers of the blog. One of the best moments came from a brain freeze. I took the elevator to a floor and went to the door I thought was mine, but it had a do not disturb sign on it. It was late, the key did not appear to work and I knew my roommate would not typically put the sign on the door. So downstairs I went to ask the desk if I was on the 15th or 16th floor. As I turned to head to the elevator to go to the correct room, I spotted two PSPs from Illinois with whom I’ve served. Off we went to get a glass of wine and catch up – 90 minutes of laughter and love. And although it made for a late night how wonderful that was!

As leader of the Illinois State Chapter delegation, I gave the delegates some of my favorite convention advice – wear your most comfortable shoes. It’s not a fashion show (well there were a lot of daisy and star outfits and accessories, but nonetheless) and there was a lot of walking. I also told them there were no strangers, just friends who have not yet been met.

And shameless plug time. I wrote a book about one of the P.E.O. builders. Lulu Corkhill Williams was initiated at 14 years of age. She remained active her entire life and was in the room where it happened more than once. She served two terms as president of Illinois State Chapter. Her husband, H.B., was the “Original BIL.” Books can be purchased on the Illinois State Chapter Marketplace. All proceeds go to fund Illinois State Chapter conventions.