How to do Big/Little Week Sustainably
by Lan Nguyen
It’s that time of year again. Sororities are welcoming their newest Greek members into their chapter with explosions of glitter, pools of Mod Podge, and confused attractive males coerced into delivering gifts. As the craziness and fun progress throughout the next few weeks, here are some ways to show your Little or Pledge Daughter all the love in the world while still showing the Earth some love.
1. Turn ugly t-shirts into works of art:
No matter what chapter you’re in, this something all sorority girls can relate to: you have a lot of shirts, and many of them are never worn because they’re just plain ugly. It’s okay, you think to yourself, I’ll just pass this down to my Little/Pledge Daughter next year and it’ll be great. And she’ll pass it down to hers, and so on and so forth. But why not repurpose it into something that can be used and appreciated? Shirts that lack aesthetic appeal can serve as great material for repurposed crafts like headbands, quilts, canvases, pillows, and more.
2. Give the gift that keeps on giving:
Everybody loves baking or cooking goodies for the beloved new member of their pledge family. However, giving food always requires transporting it, usually in paper plates or aluminum tins. But why not make the food container a gift in and of itself? Buy some Tupperware and decorate it with your letters or cute puns so that even after she finishes all of her food, she’ll still have a reusable container AND a reminder of how much you love her.
3. Share with your sisters:
If you decide to decorate your baby’s room with balloons or streamers, you’re probably going to go and buy a pack of supplies and only end up using a third of what you buy. Don’t bring it back to your room and let it sit until the end of the year when you eventually will throw it away; share it with other fellow Bigs/Pledge Moms so you can show your sisters some love and not let anything go to waste.
4. Repurpose, repurpose, repurpose!
Crafting requires a lot of paper and what not, but you can cut back on how much you use by repurposing items such as newspaper. If your Pledge Baby or Little is a journalism major, there’s no better gift than cardboard letters wrapped in newspaper. If she’s participated in theater productions, make things out of old programs for the plays she’s been a part of. Or walk around campus and take down old fliers from student groups that she’s in and make a collage out of it. There are so many ways to cut down on paper usage while also giving used paper a new purpose!
5. Dumpster dive:
Okay, maybe you don’t actually need to dig through the dumpster, but instead of paying for expensive canvases to paint on, use cardboard boxes (look through your hall’s recycling bin) as a surface for your beautiful artwork. You can also make cool crafts out of the wooden crates often disposed from the dining halls.
[fbshare type="button"] [twitter style="horizontal" float="left"]