April 1, 2014

To Parents of Phi Kappa Tau:

We hope your year is going well. Our year is flying by here at Bradley University.
We would like to give you an update on what is going on here at Phi Kappa Tau as
well as invite you to our Parents Event that will be held on Saturday April 5
th
.

Spring Parents Event
This upcoming weekend marks the Bradley Universitys Spring Parents Weekend.
We have planned an evenings worth of events that we encourage all to attend. To
start it off there will be a silent auction of many useful Phi Tau accessories, such as
a customized water bottle, glassware and clothing. Be sure to check out the
exclusive items because there will only be one of each available. All proceeds
from the silent auction will be going towards our philanthropy, which is discussed
below.

After that we are setting up dinner reservations at either Burger Barge or
Fieldhouse Bar and Grill for 7 p.m. For those of you who dont know, Fieldhouse
is primarily a wings restaurant in Campus town while Burger Barge is a local
burger place where you can order anything from a normal cheeseburger to their
specialty peanut butter burger. Once dinner is over, our off campus house, 1508
Barker Avenue, is inviting you all over to socialize with the rest of us as well as
our parents.

Awards
Every year there is a ceremony in Greek Life at Bradley University called Grand
Chapter. This gives awards to those fraternities and sororities that stood out
throughout the past year in different. For the spring semester of 2013 we received
the highest GPA on campus for the fifth semester in a row. In addition to that, we
were one of five fraternities on campus to receive a 3-star accreditation. This
Phi Kappa Tau
Gamma Mu Chapter
Bradley University
1511 W. Fredonia Ave
Peoria, IL, 61606
accreditation system graded our performance during the year based on academic
excellence, philanthropy, community service, leadership, and internal and external
kinship.



The 6 rewards received at Grand Chapter

Phi Tau Athletics
During the spring semester Phi Tau once again displayed athletic excellence in a
variety of sports. The semester started out with the volleyball team taking home
third place in the IFC tournament. The basketball season started soon after that and
the house had a busy schedule fielding four teams this year. An A team two B
teams and one C team all represented the house during the regular basketball
season. The two B teams and the C team came up a little bit short at the end of the
season being eliminated in the 2
nd
round of the playoffs. The A team ended up
losing in the championship game against the club basketball team. The IFC
basketball tournament was held the weekend after spring break and Phi Tau flew
past Sigma Chi and Delta Upsilon during the first two rounds. The championship
game was no contest as the guys put on a show outscoring Sigma Nu 47-22.

Besides basketball Phi Tau competed in many other events, placing 2
nd
in wresting
at 152lbs, 1
st
in Heavyweight, and even 1
st
in dodgeball. Upcoming events for the
rest of the semester include indoor soccer, softball, outdoor soccer and flag
football.



Phi Taus A basketball team

Spring Break at Hole-In-The-Wall Gang Camp
Two weeks ago, 10 members of our chapter volunteered at our national
philanthropy, Paul Newmans Hole-In-The-Wall Gang Camp. This camp was
founded in 1988 by Phi Kappa Tau Alumni Paul Newman in Ashford, Connecticut.
The main purpose of this camp it to help terminally ill children by giving them a
fun filled week at a western themed camp. The ten members spent their spring
break helping around the camp with tasks such as chopping wood, cleaning cabins,
renovating storage rooms, and much more. Some pictures of the trip and camp are
shown on the following page.

In addition to that I have included a link to the Youtube video below that we were
shown during the trip. This video clearly shows how much this camp means to the
children, parents, and volunteers involved.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueqULieAkFg

Thank you for your time and if there are any questions or concerns, feel free to
email me at <dnovalinski@mail.bradley.edu>. We hope to see all of you this
weekend!

In Phi,


David Novalinski and Mark Fisher
Vice President of Alumni Relations
Phi Kappa Tau - Gamma Mu






Here is a picture of the ten of us that
volunteered, taken at Niagara Falls on our
way to the camp.





This is a picture of David chopping a piece
of wood. This was just one of volunteering
tasks that were done during the trip.












In addition to Niagara Falls, we also stopped
in Boston. The picture above was taken
during a tour at Fenway Park, the worlds
oldest baseball stadium.




Above is a picture of us eating lunch in the
dining hall. After working for a few hours
in the morning, nothing was better than a 30
minute break with food cooked by Chef
Dan.
Pictures from the 2014 trip to the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang Camp