The holiday season has been called “the most wonderful time of the year,” and for members of the Greek community this year, spreading the holiday cheer has never been easier.

“The holidays are a time to be thankful for all the things we have, and it’s a great way to help the less fortunate make their wish lists a reality,” said Dan Czyz, junior in ACES and committee member of Pike Presents for Pi Kappa Alpha.

Take a look at what the University Greek community has been doing for the holidays.

h2. Sigma Nu

For the past three years, Sigma Nu has hosted a dessert party to raise money for Toys for Tots.

“We collect toys for kids who don’t have enough money to buy presents for Christmas,” said Akshay Bajaj, junior in Engineering and philanthropy chair for Sigma Nu. “Instead of collecting toys for kids across the country, we wanted to make it more localized and donate the toys for kids in the Champaign-Urbana area.”

The dessert party, held last Thursday at the Sigma Nu house, was free and open to the Greek community and the entire campus community.

“We even invited a lot of staff members from a bunch of different departments who support the Greek community to make a monetary donation or donate an unused toy to get into the event,” he said.

College Chef in Champaign donated food from scratch to the party, and representatives from the company donated $850 worth of toys. Bajaj said he estimates Sigma Nu raised $1,700 worth of toys, up $500 from last year.

“We also donated at least $200 in cash for Toys for Tots,” Bajaj said. “I think it was a huge success.”

h2. Panhellenic and Interfraternity Council

The Panhellenic Council paired up with the Interfraternity Council to host a holiday gift drive and a holiday party for The Center for Women in Transition, which took place last Saturday.

“All of the chapters are encouraged to donate gifts for a specific age range and gender, or for the mothers,” said Bridget Leduc, junior in LAS and vice president of philanthropy for Panhellenic Council.

At the holiday party, children from all over the Champaign-Urbana area came to visit Santa and his elves (who were actually members of the Interfraternity Council) to share their holiday wish lists and received a gift that best fit their wishes. A catered lunch, holiday treats and activities for the kids kept everyone entertained for the afternoon.

“About 300 gifts were donated, which was more than we’ve ever had,” Leduc said. “We were able to donate additional gifts to the Crisis Nursery as well.”

h2. Pi Kappa Alpha

The eighth annual Pi Kappa Alpha holiday toy drive began before Thanksgiving break and ended on Monday. The fraternity paired up with Garden Hills Elementary School in Champaign to get a wish list of different items the students wanted for the holiday season. The lists were distributed to the different sororities on campus, and the fraternity encouraged them to select presents to buy based on the list. Pi Kappa Alpha picked up the presents on Monday and will distribute the presents at the school today.

“Seventy percent of the students are at or below the poverty line, so some children don’t have a Christmas or don’t have enough money to buy presents,” said Nick Virgilio, junior in Engineering and philanthropy chair for Pi Kappa Alpha. “So it’s hard to ask what they want because some kids don’t know how to ask for presents.”

Usually, kids will ask for presents for family members as well.

“We get a lot of requests for coats and gloves for parents,” Virgilio said. “But most of the time, the gifts range from very generic, like coloring books, to specific, like a Barbie doll.”

The fraternity also asked for donations from their friends and family and used the leftover funds to send a check to the school, which has been used for new playground equipment and textbooks in the past.

“It’s our biggest philanthropy of the year,” Czyz said, “and we really want everyone to have a chance to experience the holidays, no matter what their economic situation is.”