Gamma Pi Looks Back on a Full Holiday Season of Providing UPLIFT

Gamma Pi helped make the holidays special for seniors, youth and families in the DMV during the 2014 Thanksgiving and Christmas season, pulling double duty for both Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Brothers loading Thanksgiving turkeys for giveaway

The Super Chapter started the holidays by joining forces with the Brothers of Lambda Gamma Gamma chapter in the Annual Thanksgiving Turkey Baskets Giveaway for seniors at the Windsor Crossing complex in Suitland, held during the evening of November 25, 2014. Brothers delivered a total of 100 turkey baskets.

Every year, seniors look forward to the men of Omega Psi Phi starting off their holiday period in the right spirit. Turkeys for the giveaway were loaded onto the truck earlier in the day at the Share Food Warehouse in Hyattsville. The dinners were purchased by Friendship Charities (www.friendshipcharitiesinc.org) and Lambda Gamma Gamma.

Shortly after the Windsor Crossing project, Gamma Pi collaborated with the women of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Delta Sigma Theta and Sista 4 Sista to deliver turkeys to families in the Kentland community, where Gamma Pi operates its successful Que Kidz Dayz initiative.

Turkeys ready for delivery

The Brothers assembled a strong team of nine, under the leadership of Brother Orlando McDowell, who heads Que Kidz Dayz. Brothers set up a classic assembly line with bags flowing from the docks at the Share Food Warehouse in Hyattsville to waiting vehicles to be driven to Kentland. The trkeys were gathered at Reid Temple AME for dissemination at the Kentland Community Center by Sister 4 Sister. Once the loading process was complete the caravan was off to Kentland. About 75 to 80 turkey dinners were given away. 

As the holiday moved from Thanksgiving to Christmas, the Brothers of Gamma Pi held the annual Christmas Party for the families of the Suitland area on December 2. It was a little earlier than previous years. The event took place at Suitland Elementary School during the evening. Friendship Charities (Gamma Pi) and Lambda Gamma Gamma chapter purchased toys for approximately 80 children, ages 3-13. The Suitland Citizens Association prepared refreshments for the guests.  Brothers were sporting the colors which area huge signal that “something good is about to happen” for the residents of Suitland who have enjoyed Gamma Pi events and projects for many years as the chapter’s ”adopted community.” 

Santa (Bro. Tony Lee) and Bro. Bleu Colquitt start holiday

For the first time, the Brothers (led by the Que Kidz Dayz team) joined Sisters 4 Sisters and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority to hand out Christmas gifts at the Kentland Community Center on December 6, which was a Saturday.

“All in all, it was a very productive and exciting holiday period for Gamma Pi chapter, made better by the fact that we helped make the holiday special and memorable for others in the community,” said Basileus Brian K. Long. “ This is what the Uplift part of our creed is about.”

More photos below. Thanks to Brothers Ken Jones, Don Cook and Bleu Colquitt for the information and photos.

The whole crew relishes a good job!

Kids waiting in line for Santa at he Suitland party 

Basileus Brian K.Long posing with Santa

Bro. Mel White (left) leads crew in Thanksgiving giveaway 

Community members enjoying Suitland Christmas party

Gamma Pi Birthday Bashes: Helping Senior Citizens Celebrate Their Blessed Years of Life

Brothers address seniors during festivities

Article and Photos by Bro. Ruddy Gainer

On Wednesday, December 10, 2014 the Brothers of Gamma Pi joined the "seasoned citizens" at Windsor Crossing in Suitland, Md. to take part in the quarterly Senior Citizen's  Birthday Bash Party.  This was the last Senior Birthday party for 2014 and the holiday spirit was all around as old school Christmas tunes filled the air.  There were plenty of seniors on hand to celebrate the event.

The celebration began with each of the seniors sharing the things that they were thankful for this holiday season.  The seniors shared several touching stories about there lives. One person thanked God for seeing an amazing 95 years of life. Another person was thankful for significant improvements in her health.

Making sure the seniors are having fun

Each of the seniors thanked the Brothers of Gamma Pi for the fun and fellowship they receive from this quarterly event. When the seniors finished giving thanks, it was time to move on to ice cream and cake as the Brothers sang Happy Birthday to them. 

The next session of the event was one of the seniors favorite activities of playing Bingo.  The brothers provided Christmas baskets and cash as prizes for the bingo winners. The event concluded with Brother Anthony Kelly leading a heartfelt prayer of thanks for the holiday season. The next Senior Birthday party is planned for March 2015.

Que Kidz Dayz Program Excites Local Youth with Visit to African American Civil War Museum

By Brother Ken Jones

Gamma Pi Brothers pose with students outside museum

On Saturday, November 15, the Brothers of Gamma Pi had the pleasure of hosting the Kids from Kentland at the African American Civil War Museum in Washington, DC.

It was a brisk morning and arriving at the museum was a site to see. From the big black gates that welcome you in at the entrance to the pictures that lead down the sidewalk to doors of the museum. You get the feel of history just walking into the museum. The kids were full of questions from the pictures they saw. The staff of the museum were grateful for the excitement from the students.

The staff showed a brief presentation, which introduced the museum and set the exploratory track for the day. After the presentation there was a scavenger hunt that the museum staff sent the students on. The students were sent out to find some very interesting answers hidden in the museums articles, videos, and exhibits. The excitement continued to build as the students began to find the answers to the questions given. 

All the chapter members and the youth

The Brothers of Gamma Pi served as group leaders while going through the museum with the students. Once the scavenger hunt was completed the museum staff read through the gathered answers to see what the groups had found. Every group did a good job and were very happy with their success.

As we took a break to eat lunch the students continued to ask the museum staff very good questions.  Once the mind is stimulated there is no telling where that will lead. It was once said that “the most precious thing you can give anyone is your time”, well if this field trip is any indication of that, this was time well spent

Who knows, we may get our next great historian out of the kids went spent time with today. We must continue to spend time with as many students as we can, after all, they are our leaders of tomorrow.

As we left the museum and headed to the statue of African American Soldiers, across the street from the museum it was evident that the museum had excited the students to find out more about the Civil War period and know that there were African American soldiers that helped win the war for the Union. Finding out the truth about the Civil War really felt good, since most classrooms of the past only taught us from another point of view. The students were glad to hear that their ancestors fought for their freedom as well. May God bless the students and the Brothers that continue to lead them.

Photos below from Brothers Kevin Greenwood and Chris Edwards
More photos available here)

Bro. Tony Kelly shows artifacts to kids 

Museum entrance

Youth listening attentively

Gamma Pi Closes Out a Very Successful and Uplifting Achievement Week with Community Event

Full house on hand -- soaking up the special occasion

Every Brother in Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. draws a purple circle around November 17. For the uninitiated, November 17 is Founders' Day for this great Fraternity.  It is a time for every Brother to reflect back on the brilliance of the Founders and the charge they left with every member of Omega Psi Phi down through the generations, backed by the Four Cardinal Principles. For the public, Achievement Week is about recognizing the Uplift that Omega Psi Phi provides to the local community every day through individual and collective efforts, both seen and unseen.

This year, Gamma Pi's Achievement Week was worthy of a "purple circle" drawn around the entire week. Another year, yet another outstanding series of events by The Super Chapter, culminating in a standing room only communitywide Achievement Week program held Saturday afternoon at cozy Harmony Hall in Fort Washington. This year's theme was "Leveraging Our Collective Resources for Impact."

Basileus Brian Long and Bro. Rev. H. Beecher Hicks

Inspiring, Informing, Igniting

The program at Harmony Hall inspired, informed and ignited, a fitting close to a great week for Gamma Pi. Brother Richard Allison II led the afternoon as the official emcee, priming the audience for an afternoon of history, thoughtful messages and entertainment.

Brother Peter Harvey, Esq., the former Attorney General for the state of New Jersey, brought a thoughtful message to the audience about the deep meaning and purpose of Omega Psi Phi's founding in the context of social challenges faced today in the African American community. He deftly weaved together a number of issues and challenges that together represented a "call to action" for Omega.  For example, Brother Harvey reminded the Brothers and educated the audience that the Greek letters were not chosen "out of a hat" at random and the Four Cardinal Principles were thoroughly discussed and arrived at, and in the specified order in which they are presented -- Manhood, Scholarship,Perseverance and Uplift -- for a reason. Men of Omega, he said, are men who are ":called to action" and who are needed to address community issues today as when the Fraternity was founded.

Brother Harvey reviewed the meaning of  "a true Friend," another core aspect of Omega, by saying, "I define friendship this way: it's the people who will come see about you when it matters...they don't wait for you to stumble and fall, they come to lift you up."

Brother Harvey also used the occasion to challenge the Brothers of Gamma Pi and Omega to educate about and fight against domestic violence. He provided a moving scenario in which he asked the Brothers to think of two important women in their lives, and imagine them being assaulted at the hands of a man. At the end of his remarks, Brother Harvey revealed that he is working with a couple of professional sports leagues to develop personal conduct policies in light of recent high-profile media reports about domestic violence involving athletes. Brother Harvey drew a standing ovation.

While this year's event was a return to the traditional community program, it was anything but "run-of-the-mill," given the full house, the new venue, the impassioned message of the speaker and the energy of the audience. To read more about Brother Harvey's illustrious career in law and the Fraternity, read the preview article in The Gamma Pi Gazette: Achievement Week Preview

Bro. Harvey's entire speech can be viewed on Gamma Pi's You Tube channel: Gamma Pi TV

Fraternity and Community Awards

Gamma Pi used the program to present its customary Achievement Week awards to the community and to members of the chapter. It is always one of the highlights of Achievement Week and especially the community program.

Brothers Rodgers (Grand KRS), Calhoun, Folsom and Turner

Brother Tony Lee, Vice Basileus, was named Gamma Pi's Omega Man of the Year for 2014; Brother William "Bill" Reese, who chaired this year's Achievement Week program, was named Superior Service Award winner; Brother Otis Fowler, Vice Chair for Achievement Week, received The Founders' Award; Brother Roland Jones, newly named to a top county government position, was presented The Citizen of the Year award; Brother Rev. Dr. H. Beecher Hicks was named Religious Leader of the Year; and Brother Donald Belle received the Educator of the Year award.  The chapter also recognized scholarship winners who are collectively receiving more than $24,000 in support from the Charles Drew Memorial Scholarship Foundation and Gamma Pi this academic year.

Bro Basileus Long also recognized four Brothers for their contributions by having them serve as Founders stand-ins: Brothers Grand Keeper of Records and Seal Kenneth Rodgers, Maurice Calhoun, Second District Chaplain Rev. Dr. Gerald Folsom and Thaddeus Turner. Also, Bro. Long recognized Brother James Alexander for receiving the District Superior Service award in 2014.

Youth talent was clearly on display during the program, thanks to the soothing sounds of the Surrattsville High School Choir under the direction of Brother Marcus Davis and the Charles H Flowers High School Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Brother Don DeMarco Myles. Both musical aggregations demonstrated the plentiful, rich talent that is alive and well in Prince George's County's schools.

At the Howard University Rededication

The Hon. Bro. Rushern Baker, Prince George's County Executive, helped close the program out with a ringing endorsement of Gamma Pi's solid reputation and active commitment to the greater Prince George's Community.

A Special Week from Start to Finish

Ironically, the week began on Sunday, November 16, with a chapter visit to Pillar of Truth Baptist Church, the church pastored by Vice Basileus Bro. Tony Lee, the 2014 Omega Man of the Year for Gamma Pi. About 30 Brothers attended the service in Capitol Heights. Known for his humor and wit, Bro. Rev. Lee, referring to several Scriptural passages, stirred Omega souls with a message about the requirements of a Friend versus the requirements of a Brother. Brothers Lee and Harvey essentially gave bookend messages about Friendship and Brotherhood that allowed each to make complementary points. You can stitch those two messages together like fabric and Gamma Pi Brothers received a dynamic challenge for Achievement Week. It could not have worked out better as the starting and ending points for Achievement Week.

Brothers and Vice Basileus Rev. Tony Lee after Nov. 16 service

In between the beginning of Achievement Week and the end of it, Gamma Pi had a contingent of about 50 Brothers to go to the Rededication Ceremony at Howard University on Founders' Day, November 17. As always, Gamma Pi represented well, having one of the bigger chapter aggregations at the Rededication ceremony.

The Super Chapter also hosted about 80 Omega men from in and outside the chapter for its popular annual Omega Brothers Only Dinner at Andrews Air Force Base on Friday night, November 21. Gamma Pi's Brother Rodgers, the Grand Keeper of Records and Seal, brought a powerful personal message about how you get from Omega what you put into it, using his own story about making the tough transition from college to the graduate level after initially being disengaged with the Fraternity. He described the inner satisfaction of returning to the fold after initially being away for a brief period, now since remaining forever engaged and committed, realizing how much he had missed the fellowship of being among Brothers. Clearly, he has embraced the full meaning of brotherhood having been elected to a Supreme Council post.

Just a year ago, Gamma Pi celebrated its 40th anniversary Achievement Week with a stellar, first-class, star-studded formal dinner program that paid homage to the chapter's history and lineage. While  the overarching story line last year was about Gamma Pi turning 40, this year it was about the chapter's greatest accomplishment in Omega -- electing the first Grand officer  from Gamma Pi to the Supreme Council of Omega Psi Phi, in the person of Brother Rodgers, who is also a past three-term Basileus for Gamma Pi and the former two-term Second District Representative.

Truly, the Super Chapter has come a long way and is on track to go even further as one of the shining lights of Omega. Achievement Week was a great time to recognize that accomplishment and emphasize the message of seeking even higher heights for the future for Gamma Pi. 

CLICK HERE FOR OUR ACHIEVEMENT WEEK 2014 PHOTO ALBUM