When many of us joined Delta Chi at Michigan, one our primary motivations may have been simply to find some place to live. We’d been in the dorms, and knew we had to try something different. So initially, what we came to call “The House” was simply that… a house to live in.
It was only after we joined the fraternity, and moved in with our Brothers in the Bond, that The House became a home. And what a home that old house was! Like any old family home, it needed constant care and update. In our own ways, we all in turn made it our own, whether through pledge week repair and rebuilding sessions, or just in the constant chores of trying to keep an old house clean, operating, and functioning.
We became comfortable in that home, surrounded each year with familiar touches that very seldom changed; skins on the walls and on room doors, composites on the wall, the “wedge’” of wood by the fireplace, the out-of-tune piano in the drinking room in the basement, and the front porch where we could sit and watch the world go by, for example. When we came back each fall, either as actives returning for the new school year, or alumni returning for another homecoming, we were returning home. And we felt comfortable in those familiar touches.
But that old house is gone. And for the Brothers who now live in the new house, there is not the same connections to this house that we had to the old. It is currently, simply a (new and much improved) place to live.
We’re now trying to change that — to once again make the house a home. We want to create the kind of environment and atmosphere where we once thrived; an inviting place with familiar touches that can remain constant as the years go on. We want the Delta Chi house to become the Home of the Delta Chis once again.
We need your help to do this.
If you’ve been reading the recent eDelts, you’ve hopefully noticed that we’ve started a few efforts to add the touches that will make this a home for the brothers in the fraternity again. We’re trying to replace the old composites, filling in the gaps for the missing years where we can, and hanging them once more in positions of honor on the walls in the common areas. We’re trying to collect pledge paddles and skins, and all those other pieces that mark our history and heritage… and truly identify this new house as the Home of the Michigan Delta Chis.
It’s not just adding the history and heritage stuff either. For example, as we approached the challenges of this current school year, with COVID 19, social distancing challenges, etc., we realized that the addition of picnic tables on the new back patio would not only assist in the social distance challenges but would serve as a pleasant place outside to eat meals and socialize. You’ve probably seen that several alums have stepped up to purchase some of the tables, but more are needed.
We also want to have the capital on hand that we can make available to the current crop of brothers so they can add their own touches… so it truly becomes their home and not just ours.
As you might expect, it takes more than just collecting stuff. We need financial support to make the house into a home.
So here’s our plea… we need your help to make this a home to the brothers who occupy the house now, and those future brothers who will come to 1705 Hill looking for a house only to find a home instead.
We have basically three projects in need of donations—the ongoing Wall of History and Heritage, chapter needs (picnic tables, for example), and the ongoing tax deductible Delta Chi Educational Fund.
In this effort, we’re not looking for just the one or two heavy-hitter donors who could just drop a one-time gift and feel like the job is done (although we will not turn down any who fit his category!). Our goal in this is to get as many Michigan Delta Chi Alumni as possible to participate and contribute… (hopefully on a continuing basis) to make this once again OUR/YOUR home on the corner of Hill and Oxford in Ann Arbor.
We also want to make sure that your gift, whatever the amount, is fully recognized. This will initially occur through listings in our eDelt newsletters.
Our intent is to list donors by the amount of their donation, including both their names and their years of graduation (or years in the house). We also want to acknowledge those who may want to make their contributions in honor of one of their brothers or any others that they want to name (for example, John Henry Russell, our long serving cook whose story was covered in the September eDelt).
Picnic table fund Goal $3000
John Eggertsen ’68 ———————–$500
Brenden Breslow ’12——————– $125
David Falconer ’62 ———————- $100
Howard Gandelot ’64 —————— $100
Frank Morrey ’64 ————————$100
Alan Knaus ’66 ————————— $100
John Levinson ’73 ———————– $100
Gary Mervak ’74 ————————-$100
John Stinson ’75 ————————- $100
Joe Gradisher ’79 ———————— $100
Jeff Schoenherr ’91 ——————— $100
James Richhart ’64 ———————– $50
Zachary Jones ’12 ————————-$25
Wall of History and Heritage Goal $10,000
James Fuger ’82 ———————– $1000….Matching fund challenge
Brandon Breslow ’12 ——————– $125
Gary Brasseur ’59 ———————— $100
Frank Morrey ’64 ————————- $100
John Eggertsen ’68 ———————– $100
Walter Cornwall ’79 ———————- $100
James Kennedy ’64 ————————-$50
Delta Chi Education Fund, tax deductible Goal $12,000
JeFf Schoenherr ’91 ——————- $1,500
David Falconer ’62 ——————— $1,000
Due to current laws, any donations for our fund for Heritage/History and “Make this a Home” improvements would not qualify as tax deductions. But if that is a motivator for you, there is the option of donating, through National, to the Delta Chi Educational Fund. If contributions to that fund are made via our own John Levinson, they can be specifically earmarked for use by Michigan Delta Chi, rather than thrown into the general fund.
We are Michigan Brothers in the Bond. And that Bond owes much to our collective heritage and history of living in our home at 1705 Hill St. Our goal is for current and future Brothers in that Bond to feel the same connections… to each other and to the shared experience of living in more than just a house on the corner.
Please help us make the House a Home.
Send your contributions to: John Levinson, Michigan Delta Chi Alumni Corp, 8770 Oak Beach Drive, Commerce Township, MI 48382.
Thank You.
