De Neve Plaza Room’s seats and walls were packed on Wednesday night to watch a keyboardist in lumberjack attire with clown face paint, a student playing a double bass and a foot tambourine while singing an original song in French and English, and 10 other acts competing in Pi Kappa Phi’s Acoustic Coffee House event.
About 350 people attended the event, which raised $1,400 for Push America, the charity Pi Kappa Phi established in 1977 to help people with disabilities. Pi Kappa Phi is the only national fraternity that has established its own philanthropic organization, said philanthropy chair Steven Chew.
Lady Danville, a band of three UCLA alumni, judged the competition and performed before the winners were announced.
“When I was a Pi Kapp, we wanted to stand for something, and (Push America) is what we took pride in,” said Dan Chang, a member of the band who used to be in Pi Kappa Phi.
Although entrance was free for the competition, attendees were encouraged to buy tickets to vote for their favorite act.
After the voting, the People’s Choice winner and the Grand Prize winner were announced, and both received recording time at 4th Street Recording in Santa Monica.
“I thought it was cool to help out with the cause,” said Crosby Morgan, the People’s Choice winner of the competition. “I think a lot of us would have played … if there were no prizes,” added the first-year sociology student.
Acoustic Coffee House replaced Pi Kappa Phi’s annual Battle of the Bands, which raised up to $7,000 in the past. A reduction in funding made putting on such a large-scale event impossible, said Matthew King, Pi Kappa Phi president.
Donations collected at the concert were not the only way Pi Kappa Phi members worked to raise money for Push America Wednesday night.
As the audience entered the room, they were greeted with coffee, tea and a row of laptops with all the screens open to Facebook. Members of the Pi Kappa Phi approached students and asked them to log in to their Facebook accounts and vote for Push America in the Chase Community Giving program.
The program, sponsored by JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Facebook, challenges charities to compete for the most votes on a Facebook page. The contest ends today at 11:59 p.m. eastern standard time and the winning charity will be awarded $1 million on or around Feb. 1. The second through sixth place winners will receive $100,000 each.
As of Thursday evening, Push America was 39th on the leaderboard.
Push America had garnered roughly 2,000 votes as of Jan. 15, earning a place in the top 100 charities that are partaking in the second round and guaranteeing the organization a $25,000 grant, said Adam Phillips, director of marketing for Push America.
The grant money will go toward providing wheelchair-accessible ramps and playgrounds nationwide and funding Push Camps or Give-A-Push Weekends that Pi Kappa Phi members take part in, according to the Push America Web site.