Sigma Alpha Iota

P A N P I P E S Winter 2021 7 MUSIC NOTES In the summer of 2020 the Boston Alumnae Chapter Executive Board met virtually to begin planning our calendar year and set our goals for what was sure to be a difficult year ahead. One of the goals was to maintain our connection with our sisters during the challenges of the COVID-19 Pandemic, so we started brainstorming ways in which to do this. At the time, my older sister, Rebecca Campbell, was the Director and eater Manager of a four week all-virtual summer theater camp at the Performing Arts Center of Metrowest in Framingham, MA (a non-profit organization which has been long-affiliated with the Boston Alumnae Chapter). Every week Rebecca and her interns would "mask up" and bring care packages with props, costumes, recording equipment, and mementos to the students so they could get the full, in-person, summer camp experience at home. e students loved being greeted with a box on their doorstep each week. Who doesn't love getting mail? I was inspired! is is how we should keep our Boston Alumnae sisters connected, I thought, and the idea to deliver holiday care packages to them in December was born. e finished product was a festive basket filled with various treats and commemorative holiday cups to coincide with our BAC Winter Zoom Movie Night, handwritten cards, and hand-painted Sigma Alpha Iota picture frames with personal photographs for each sister that represented a special moment with them and the Boston Alumnae Chapter. Our newest members received photographs of meaningful Sigma Alpha Iota quotes and the charter members of the BAC as a welcome to our chapter. On a cold, drizzly December aernoon at the most "New England-y" place you can think of, Dunkin', our officers convened in our masks, discussed our routes, and dispersed to drop off the packages to sisters all across the greater Massachusetts area. An email blast had been sent out earlier that day to let our members know that a surprise package would be arriving on their doorstep, and once the gis had been delivered, the responses started rolling in almost immediately. When I started reading them, I was touched. One of our sisters wrote about the impact that the holiday package had on her; "It's incredibly easy to feel lonely right now and the message in the card was such a needed reminder that even when we're physically apart, we still have others to walk with us. I'm in the middle of my pregnancy and while we have so very much to be grateful for, it's also been difficult to feel cut off from people during this time. anks for reminding me that none of us is alone." Longtime Boston Alumnae Chapter sister Martha Ebel wrote a heartfelt message to our chapter aer receiving her holiday package, in which she shared the tough losses that her own family had suffered this year. I had been the one to deliver Martha's holiday package and actually found out that she was in quarantine at the time, because she had come into contact with someone who had tested positive for COVID, but her spirits were not dampened. "I think of my BAC sisters and I am proud of the chapter's accomplishments... Having this picture on the desk in front of me brings back so many great memories. is project is certainly at the top of the list of the many wonderful chapter projects. e warmth and kindness that it provided is profoundly moving," Martha wrote. For days (and even weeks, as a few sisters got their packages later because they had to be mailed), messages poured in from sisters who were excited, surprised, grateful, and touched by our holiday surprise and our effort to keep them connected to the chapter during this difficult year, especially those who hadn't been able to be involved in awhile. One of my favorite parts about doing this project was how it helped me feel so much more connected to my fellow Boston Alumnae Chapter sisters, as well. I graduated from Westminster Choir College and the Lambda Tau Chapter in the spring of 2018 and affiliated with the BAC that fall, so I'm still relatively new to alumnae life, but I already know that this is going to go down as one of my most fulfilling alumnae experiences. ough our holiday surprise project may seem small to some, it had a large impact on the lives of our 32 sisters during what was one of the most difficult years for so many- and the impact was evident in their responses. At our BAC Winter Movie Night we enjoyed the treats from our baskets and enjoyed each other's company in the most 2020 way possible, hoping that in the near future we may all be together in person again soon. — Submitted by Claire Campbell, Sergeant At Arms, Boston Alumnae Chapter Staying Close During a Pandemic Holiday gift basket received by a member of the Boston Alumnae Chapter. Holiday gift basket received by a member of the Boston Alumnae Chapter.

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