Annual Turtle Tug event sets $30,000 goal to aid several causes
Delta Zeta held its annual Turtle Tug tug-of-war competition and charity event Sunday afternoon on the Strom field.
The competition pitted 45 teams of eight against each other with a kiddy pool filled with Jell-O between them. Winners advanced to the next round, and losers were pulled face first into the sticky gelatin.
Keeping with the shelled reptilian theme, teams gave themselves name such as the Tuggernauts, the Toxic Turtles, Tug My Tort and Heroes in a Halfshell.
Last year, the event, Delta Zeta's main charity event, raised $22,000 for the sorority's national and local philanthropies, and this year the goal was $30,000. Teams each paid $80 to register, donations were taken at the event and a percent night was held at the Carolina Ale House. Numbers weren't available Sunday to confirm whether the sorority met its goal.
Cera Kroenke, the Delta Zeta member and third-year exercise student who organized the event, said half of the money will go toward The Painted Turtle, a camp for seriously ill children in California.
The other half will be divided between the local school Brennen Elementary, which has a hearing-impaired class where the sorority volunteers every week, and Washington D.C.'s Gallaudet University, the only university in the world devoted exclusively to the deaf and hearing impaired.