Alpha 415X260

May 2020 Heritage News: 150, 185, 280000+

Category: Heritage

Noraleen Young

Alpha Chi, Purdue

Numbers play an important role in telling the story of an organization. For Theta right now, the important numbers are 150 years old, 185 chapters established, and more than 280,000 members.

By themselves, those numbers seem a little … dry. But I guarantee that a six-minute video, called "Our College Chapters," is anything but dry! Through the earliest photograph that we can locate for each of the 185 college chapters established during our 150-year history, it tells the story of Kappa Alpha Theta.

The women pictured in the video radiate joy as they stand next to their sisters. It does not matter if the image was taken in the 1880s or the 2000s; we can connect with all of them. There are probably several thousand women depicted (I have not counted!) and just think of the tens of thousands of Thetas these women represent. Theta existed and continues to exist because of the women who founded chapters, each one carrying on what Bettie, Alice, Bettie, and Hannah started. We, today's Thetas, continue it as well. So, in this 150th year, sit back, watch the video, think again about why you became a Theta, and remember it is all of our chapters that make Theta what is today. And yes, you may want a tissue.

(If you know of a photograph of a chapter taken before the one included in the video, please let me know!)