Drury University is home to a vast student body that is full of intriguing, ambitious, individualistic students that are a delight to know. To showcase these varying personalities, the Mirror has created Panther Profiles, an outlet to highlight those within the campus and to share their memories and experiences at Drury University.

Two of Drury University’s four fraternities hosted competitions over the weekend, raising money for philanthropies of their choice over the weekend of April 1st through April 3rd. First, on Friday, April 1st, Sigma Pi hosted a Hot Dog eating contest, with a silent auction, with all proceeds going to Harmony House. Harmony House provides support and advocates for those who are in a situation of domestic abuse. The winner of this competition was Strategic Communications Major, Brian Custer.

Brian Custer

Custer is extremely involved on Drury’s campus and is on the e-sports team. In fact, the e-sports team is one of the main factors in Custer’s decision to attend Drury University. However, he fell in love with the people within the community.

With his support of Sigma Pi, Custer took home the title of winner of this competition. When asked how he felt about winning, Custer replied, “Mixed feelings. It’s great to win, but I don’t even want to think about how many calories I ate that day. I’m going to have to work extra hard to make my New Year’s resolution now.”

Next, The Mirror asked if Custer did anything to prepare for this particular challenge. To which Custer stated, “I did, actually. I didn’t eat for about an entire 24-hour period before the competition to make sure I was ready to go. It wasn’t just because I wanted to win (although I did), but it was also because if I’m paying to enter a hot dog eating competition, I want to get my money’s worth out of it!” Overall, Custer and Sigma Pi had a great experience and raised money for an even greater cause on April 1st.

The following day, Saturday, April 2nd, Lambda Chi Alpha (LCA) hosted a Salsa competition in the quad. With various salsas to try, salsa music to listen to and yard games, LCA hosted a fantastic event. The proceeds from this event went to both Ozark Food Harvest and Feeding America. This competition could be individual or have a team of up to four members compete.

And in fact, a team of four did win, the ‘KD brings the heat’ team won. This team consisted of Abby Hallberg, Keylee, Buxton, Zoe Billedo and Hailey Brown. All four are members of Kappa Delta Sorority. This team went above and beyond in the competition, not making just one, but two different types of salsa. One savory and the other sweet. The components of their savory, tomato-based, salsa are as follows: fire-roasted tomatoes, onion, garlic, jalapeno, cilantro, lime juice and salt.

For the sweet salsa, the ingredients were: honey mango, red bell pepper, jalapeno, red onion, cilantro, lime juice and salt. One of the group members, freshman Elementary Education major, Hailey Brown also hinted at the most important ingredient, “teamwork”!

(left to right) Keylee Buxton, Abby Hallberg and Zoe Billedo.

Each member of this team was incredibly excited to attend this event for various reasons. Sophomore Keylee Buxton stated, “Our team went in just to have fun and support LCA but coming out with a win made everything better.”

Finance and Economics Major Abby Hallberg added on by saying, “I feel really excited about winning considering I don’t know how to cook. It was really fun to cook with my friends, especially since we all contributed evenly & had a fun time doing it.”

With such a close team and Drury community, Hailey Brown expanded that one of her favorite things about Drury, and what she’ll miss most is, “my chapter of Kappa Delta. They have been so helpful and supportive of my college journey and I’ve made great friends like the women on my team”.

Lastly, The Mirror would also like to congratulate Joey Dale and Avery Newell for organizing the Sigma Pi event and Byron King for the LCA event on Saturday. For more information on upcoming events follow @drurysigmapi and @drurylambdachi on Instagram!

Article by Gabriella Wuller