Sororities from five college campuses in Southern California
joined together Sunday afternoon to help fraternity Zeta Beta Tau
raise money for children across the state.
Several hundred sorority members from UCLA, UC Santa Barbara,
USC, UC San Diego and Cal State Long Beach participated in the
fraternity’s volleyball tournament held at the Sunset
Recreational Center.
“I played volleyball for eight years when I grew up.
It’s a good way to have a philanthropy event but also to have
fun,” said Joe Barsotti, ZBT’s vice president and a
third-year economics student.
Barsotti said he came up with the idea of having the volleyball
tournament and spread the word to other fraternity members who also
expressed interest.
Rakesh Raghuwanshi, ZBT’s publicity chair, then began
organizing the event and inviting sororities at neighboring schools
to attend.
Raghuwanshi said each participating sorority donated money to
BookEnds, a non-profit organization that provides used books to
schools and other educational centers.
The event raised upwards of $1,000, all of which went to the
children’s book recycling organization.
BookEnds was started by Brandon Keefe, a second-year political
science student and a current member of ZBT. He said he was 8 years
old when he got the idea while listening to parents discuss the
obstacles of obtaining new books for a school library.
Since then, BookEnds has grown to donate more than 500,000 books
to libraries and education centers with the help of some 80,000
volunteers.
Farhood Rabii, ZBT’s president and a fourth-year
mechanical engineering student, said the fraternity hosts many
philanthropic events as part of its philosophy to create an
individual who is the “best man he can be.”
“It’s all about the kids,” Rabii said.
The fraternity also held an event benefitting children in March,
providing campus tours and academic counseling to 50 students from
the Lincoln Heights Boys and Girls Club of Los Angeles.
Other members of ZBT shared Rabii’s enthusiasm and said
the event was also beneficial for its social functions.
“The best part is meeting all the guys and hanging out
with all the beautiful ladies. No guy is going to complain about
that,” said Adam Malatesta, a third-year political science
and history student and ZBT member.
He added that next year the fraternity plans on getting even
more sororities to participate and help raise money for the
event.
Students from attending schools also felt that the volleyball
tournament was a great way to help a charity while also having a
fun time.
“It’s a bunch of hot girls playing volleyball. The
only bad thing about this is standing around and having a ball hit
you in the head,” said Sonia Luha, a third-year speech and
communications student from Cal State Long Beach.
In the end, fraternity members said the success of the event
made sacrificing some free time pay off.
“Waking up early in the morning to set up the volleyball
tournament for BookEnds was well worth it,” Malatesta
said.