Alpha Chi Omega annual paint war brought together various student organizations to show their support for survivors of domestic violence across South Carolina.
“It was really cool to see how many organizations participated,” said Sloan Kelly, a second-year elementary education student. “Everybody was there for a really good cause.”
Faryn Katz, a second-year nursing student, is a new member in Alpha Chi Omega who was excited to experience her first paint war.
“In the beginning, it was just us running around and throwing paint, obviously but then just to see everyone else having so much fun ... we were creating so much joy for everybody else is really cool,” said Katz.
A speaker at the beginning of the event spoke about Alpha Chi Omega’s philanthropy, which is primarily domestic violence awareness.
“It was really interesting because she came and educated us about statistics but she also was talking about a firsthand experience,” said Katz. “It was pretty touching and good for everybody to see what this was really going towards.”
Many different organizations on USC’s campus took part in the event. Everyone was put onto teams according to their organization and each team was given a banner. The goal of the paint war was to get as much paint on everyone else’s banner as possible. Whoever had the least amount of paint on their banner at the end was able to use a certain amount of money to go towards their philanthropy of choice.
The paint war provided a unique experience for participants who came together for the common goal of raising money to fight domestic violence.
“It was really fun,” said Katz. “I’ve never experienced anything like that before, so being with all of my sisters was such a cool experience. To know that it was so much fun but also that it was benefiting domestic violence awareness made it a really cool experience for me.”
All proceeds from the event went towards Sistercare, a local non-profit community center that provides support and advocacy for survivors of domestic violence and their children.
“Just being together as a group and just knowing that all of us together can do something that makes such a big difference in a way that you might not even expect or understand, something as little as a doing paint war is going to benefit something so big is really cool,” said Katz.