Fraternity alumni return to help renovate house

By Crystal Garcia

TERRE HAUTE — About 100 Lambda Chi Alpha alumni returned to Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology to show current members what brotherhood is all about.

They started arriving Thursday and went right to work tearing out walls, pulling out carpet and laying down brick.

By the time they leave tonight, the Lambda Chi Alpha house will have a new game room with speakers built into the wall and new floor and ceiling tiling; a new ceiling, vanity and sinks in one of the bathrooms; one big bedroom for four guys with lofts that used to be two small bedrooms; some new carpeting throughout the house; and a lighted backyard patio complete with barbecue pit, fire pit and bar.

Alumni came in from all over the country, said Mike Bixler, a 1981 graduate from Battle Creek, Mich. He noted that one man rode his motorcycle from Phoenix.

Something like this shows the current members “what brotherhood is all about, and some of us haven’t seen each other in 25 years,” he said.

This wasn’t the first time a plethora of alumni returned to the house, however.

Last year, some of the same men went back to the house to put in some long labor hours. By the time they left, all of the public viewing areas such as the front yard, lobby and meeting room were completely revamped.

Their TV room was also redone, complete with a big-screen TV and stadium seating with leather couches.

Bixler said the idea to begin fixing the house like this came when a fellow alumnus visited the house and saw it was in bad shape and wanted to turn it around.

He said alumni started e-mailing each other to figure out what could be done. What started out with a few monetary donations snowballed into more than $50,000, which became the money they used to buy materials for the renovations.

Another reason for the renovations was to increase membership.

During 1977 graduate Tim Stone’s tenure in the house, between 70 and 100 people lived there also, he said.

Stone, of Libertyville, Ill., said the group used to win the highest award from the national fraternity every year they were eligible. The award could only be won every other year, he said, so their chapter won seven awards in 14 years.

“We were the top Lambda Chi chapter in the United States,” Stone said. “… [Now we’ve] all graduated, had families and careers and the fraternity went downhill.”

Men from those award-winning years are back now, he said, and they’re saying, “Hey guys, we got to get on track.”

So far, they’ve already seen some reward to the fruits of their labor because last year, the chapter recruited 20 new members and received three national awards.

One of those awards recognized the strong alumni relations, which current chapter president Ryan Jackson said for them to do something like this exemplifies that.

“I think all the actives here can look at the alumni as role models,” the Monroe, Mich., senior said.

Jackson said they chose to build the patio because they were looking to build “around things to attract future members,” and they do a lot of barbecues as recruitment events.

Although the chapter only has 30 members now because they lost 13 seniors to graduation after the 20-member recruitment, members have high hopes and good feelings about this year.

With only four seniors this year, senior member and social chair Andrew Carpenter of Shelburn said it’s “just going to keep increasing.”

Plans for next year’s projects are already in the works, too.

“I graduate this year, and I already have plans for next summer,” Jackson said. “It’s my chance to give back to the fraternity when I’m gone.”

Crystal Garcia can be reached at (812) 231-4271 or crystal.garcia@tribstar.com.