Panhell Love: Kappa Alpha Theta and SDT Greek Grind
Brittany McKnight, shares all about her experience as a Kappa Alpha Theta, participating in Sigma Delta Tau's annual philanthropy event: SDT Greek Grind:
My name is Brittany McKnight, and I am a junior Kappa Alpha Theta. I have been a part of Theta’s SDT Greek Grind team for the past three years and have been a captain for two of those years. I can easily say SDT Greek Grind is the best time of the year and honestly it has been my favorite part of college so far. From practices to team bonding, to competing on stage, Theta and Sigma Delta Tau have made this experience incredible.
Theta starts with a tryout dance and from there, we make our team. This year we practiced on Mondays and Wednesdays for about two hours. Closer to the event we add an extra practice at local gyms such as Athens Health and Fitness, Crunch, and Above Bar. I love going to practice because we always have such a fun time. I don’t know if we laugh more or dance more at practice. Our practices consist of teaching choreography, creating formations, and running through what we’ve learned so far. One thing I especially love is that Theta splits us up by membership class at the end of practice and we get to perform in front of each other. I’ve realized that SDT Greek Grind has let me grow closer with other member classes that I might not have known as well if it weren’t for SDT Greek Grind.
On the day of SDT Greek Grind, we all get together at Theta and get ready together. It is chaotic, crazy, and I can’t imagine it any other way. In one corner we have two girls braiding hair, in another corner we have a girl doing eyeshadow, and finally, a girl applying glitter. We have a big assembly line and I wish I could say it was organized, but the chaos is really the fun of it all. After we get ready, we eat dinner together and then we head to the Classic Center.
When we are at the Classic Center, we all sit together and run through our dance and watch the other teams compete via the live stream. It’s so great to have your sorority sisters by your side in this competition because we all get the jitters sometimes. Performing with these girls is the best because we put a lot of time into our performance, and we get to see how much our hard work has paid off. This year, I am so proud of each of the girls because we demanded a lot out of them. For example, we had a couple of 6 a.m. practices and some practices that ran until 11:30 at night.
Besides the girls on the team, Theta bought 100 tickets this year, so we got to perform in front of 100 of our closest friends. The way our chapter cheers us on and supports us is mind-blowing. When I look in the crowd, I can easily find the Thetas because they wear Theta hats, t-shirts, and even make signs for the girls on the team. This event has shown me how strong our sisterhood is. After the event, I got tons of texts from girls in the chapter telling me how great we did and that they were so proud of us. Being a Theta has taught me what true friendship looks like and how much love we have for each other.
After the event is over, the girls on the team continue the night and go to dinner together. We get to break down our performance and talk about how we thought we did. We tell the funniest stories and it’s something that I always cherish.
Even though Theta didn’t win this year I wouldn’t have it any other way. We worked so hard and had so much fun. I am extremely thankful that Sigma Delta Tau hosts this event for such a great cause and allows us to be a part of it. I’m already looking forward to next year!
