A freshman’s perspective on Winterfest

Those custom jerseys tho

When I decided to attend this University and officially became a wolverine in the class of 2020 I was equally excited to work hard and play hard. Being a naive freshman, I immediately heard that the three most exciting times of the year to be a student were tailgate season, St. Fratty’s day, and Winterfest.

While the other two seemed self-definable, the last one was an enigma until the morning of February 11th, 2017, when I was woken at 6:45 A.M by the sweet, enthusiastic sound of tailgating outside my dorm room window. That is when I realized how legendary this event would really be.

By standard definition, Winterfest is a philanthropy event participated in by all chapters of greek life, which is hosted by the brothers of Alpha Sig and Pi Kappa Alpha every year to raise money for a charity of their choosing. It’s a single elimination broomball tournament, played in Pike’s backyard, with teams individually competing for an initial spot on the bracket through fundraising. This year, the funds raised from the event will benefit the Autism Alliance of Michigan. Last year, the event raised over $60,000 in donations, making the event one of greek life’s most profitable philanthropies.

By University of Michigan definition, Winterfest is an impeccable example of the students at the University of Michigan doing what we do best, sticking by our most beloved motto– work hard, play hard. The broomball tournament started as a simple philanthropy event by a fraternity on campus, but the students at the University of Michigan only go big, or go home. The day has turned into a gigantic party through the streets of Ann Arbor, everyone with the common goal of seeing their team win the broomball tournament. It was last reported yesterday by the men of Alpha Sig that the event raised just under $100,000.

Not only are the students of Michigan working hard throughout the months of January and February to bring in the big bucks for such a wonderful philanthropic organization, they also make quite the day out of the broomball philanthropy tournament.

I’d equate the scene to a typical football Saturday in the fall at the University, but Winterfest was actually quite different. The streets were adorned with students as a normal Saturday would see, but there was quite the different vibe with every single student bonding over the same event. Your fair share of maize and blue decorated the sidewalks (just in case you happened to forget where you were), but most students festively adorned hockey jerseys. While individual darties went on at every single fraternity house on campus as they do on game day, everyone used these parties as resting points between games of broomball, or perhaps while their friends, greek affiliated organization, or they themselves were not playing.

It’s rare to see so many people both in greek life and out unite under a single cause. Being at such a large school with such diversified interests among students, even on game day Saturday’s there is not such unity among the students on campus. Pi Kappa Alpha’s backyard was open to anyone wanting to support the broomball games, and though everyone moved from house to house throughout the day, it was the MAIN attraction. It’s really important to note that the concept uniting the individuals in greek life at the event today was a philanthropic event, not a sporting event like on most Saturdays.

While we all love football Saturday’s and are counting the days until our wolverines kick off the season in the big house in September, Winterfest does a wonderful job of combining the things we love about tailgating, and giving back to our community. It is really important to remind students at the University how important it is to give back to and support our community. It was awesome to see the students at the University doing this through such a fun medium that truly involved everyone on campus like nothing else I’d really experienced in my time at Michigan so far.

The 7 A.M wakeup was certainly not ideal, but it truly brought me back to those warm Saturday mornings at the beginning of the year, and the event really reminded me and all of my fellow students how impactful it can be to unite under a single cause, (especially given our size and strength) to give back to communities around us that will really benefit from our support.

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