Trey Brown, Guest Contributor HAYTERS GAP, Va. — On Sunday, March 1, members of Greek life participated in a collective cleanup of a waterfall in Hayter’s Gap. The cleanup came as a result of a complaint made by a member of the Hayter’s Gap community via a Facebook post on Aug. 5, 2019, that featured several elicit photographs of spray-painted, Greek-lettered “tags” on the rocks at the waterfall. The students were expected to bring in their own supplies, including wire brushes, steel wool scrubbing pads, gloves and ladders to the clean-up event. While some groups had one tagging to clean off the rocks, other groups had multiple tags to clean off. The students were provided with a solute made by Bio Solute that is supposed to be eco-friendly to clean the paint off the rocks. According to current members of Greek life, these markings were not painted by current members of these Greek organizations, as there is speculation that these markings were done by alumni in previous decades. Sam Amos, the Area Coordinator and Greek Life Specialist at Emory & Henry College, said that it would be a good day for Greek life students to bond and reflect on how the situation regarding the vandalized landmark may have affected the surrounding community. “The purpose of this whole process,” said Amos, “is for the Greeks to take responsibility for their organizations, despite if it was a current or past member who created these markings. Fraternities and sororities are meant to develop and better their membership.” Amos continued, “When one’s letters are represented in a negative light, it does not just reflect poorly on the individual who decided to put their letters in that situation, but the group as a whole. My hope is that groups realize the long-term impacts they can have when groups are being represented negatively.” Of the Greek life students who participated in the cleanup, some were not members of the organizations that had their respective symbols spray painted but still wanted to participate in the cleanup. If the tags were not removed by the end of the day on Sunday, the groups whose letters remained would be responsible for returning to the waterfall to finish the cleanup. Returning groups include Theta chi Epsilon, Phi Pi Alpha and Kappa Phi Alpha.
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March 2020
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