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A LETTER FROM THE GRAND PRESIDENT

Brothers:

At the 66th Grand Council in West Palm Beach this summer, your Grand Officers announced an enhanced partnership with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Since 1995, Phi Delta Chi Brothers (both Collegiate and Alumni) have supported St. Jude through local fundraising efforts. We begin the 2007-2008 academic year with a new program that gives Phi Delta Chi a focused means by which to support St. Jude and the outstanding work they do for children. We have listened to our Chapters and found that many of you were looking for a more structured plan of giving to St. Jude - and we have answered.

Through a concentrated effort with the Groups and Organizations Department at St. Jude, we are proud to introduce The Prescription for Hope Program. Phi Delta Chi's Grand Officers have agreed to work with our Chapters to help raise $200,000 for St. Jude over the next 4 years. Upon completion of this pledge, Phi Delta Chi would be honored by having one of St. Jude's outpatient pharmacies named after the Fraternity. Imagine it: the very first "Phi Delta Chi" Pharmacy at the Nation's Premier Hospital for Childhood Cancer Treatment and Research!

You may be thinking, "This is impossible! Phi Delta Chi has only been giving St. Jude $7,000 - $12,000 per year at best!"

The Prescription for Hope Program is a letter-writing campaign and St. Jude has had enormous success with this style of fundraising. Letter-writing is the major method by which funds are raised by groups and organizations in support of St. Jude. The Delta Delta Delta Sorority (Tri-Delta's) have used this method of supporting St. Jude since 2000. As the program caught on at their Chapters and it became routine, the Tri Delta's now support St. Jude to the tune of over $1.2 million PER YEAR using this method. In comparison, the Tri Delta's collegiate membership is roughly 3 times the size of Phi Delta Chi's. Imagine the support that we can be providing to St. Jude if we put forth the same efforts as the Tri Delta's!

In short, Chapters will be organizing a letter-writing day once per year. Your Grand Officers are recommending to have this event planned around Founders' Day as a way to honor the type of service to our communities that our founders would have envisioned. This would also be a wonderful reason to invite alumni back to the Chapter to help participate in an activity.

The only things that the Brothers have to bring to the letter-writing day is their address books. Each Brother is encouraged to target 50 friends and family members with a request for a donation to St. Jude. The letter-writing is a structured process and is fully funded by St. Jude. The letters, envelopes, and postage are provided to the Chapters at NO COST.

In addition, St. Jude offers the support of their Regional Field Staff. A Regional Office of St. Jude will be assigned to each of our Chapters to work directly with them and help see to it that we succeed. Whenever possible, a member of St. Jude's staff will be present during the Chapter's letter-writing day. If we follow one example that the Tri-Delta's have used, their Chapters have made this into movie night or pizza night in a lecture hall to pass the time during the actual letter-writing. The process takes an average of 2-3 hours.

Based on the average response rate and the average donation per response, if all Chapters participated in this program we could actually complete the commitment in only 1 YEAR! With the full support of each Chapter, The Prescription for Hope is something that we CAN do!

More detailed information about how Chapters can contact their assigned St. Jude Regional Office and organize their letter-writing day have been provided to our chapter correspondents. Chapters that wish to continue local traditions in support of St. Jude in addition to The Prescription for Hope are encouraged to do so.

This is an extraordinary time to be a Phi Delta Chi! Each time we meet at a Grand Council, the Brotherhood takes new strides toward making a difference in our communities and in the health of our patients. Please join us in this campaign as we take our relationship with St. Jude to a new level!

If you cannot participate at the letter writing event but would like to donate personally, please contact your chapter/regional officers, our national office, or myself so that your contributions credited properly for this goal. OUR LITTLE FRIENDS THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!!!!! Thanks for all you do for our GREAT FRATERNITY!

Song You
Grand President
Phi Delta Chi Professional Pharmacy Fraternity