The Lambda Chi Alpha (Chop) fraternity hosted its annual Cream of the Crop event, a competition between sororities down the row to see who can collect the most canned food and come up with the best skits.

The event is broken up into three categories: The canned food donation happens during the weeks leading up to the event, Greek Goddess, the pageant portion of the event, where each sorority puts up one new member to compete; lastly, the spirit event, where the 2025 pledge class from each sorority performs themed skits and chants. 

Caden Kristofik, Lambda Chi Alpha risk chair, said the holiday season highlights an important goal for the fraternity: to give families in need an opportunity to have a good holiday.

Kristofik, a junior biology pre-professional major from Conway, Arkansas, said their chapter and the sororities down the row spend weeks raising cans of food for Chop’s philanthropy.

“The Thursday before Cream of the Crop, we go to each house and grab all the cans,” Kristofik said. “We take them to the A-State food pantry and once it fills up, we go to the NEA food bank and donate so much food.”

This year, Chop raised 32,000 pounds of food, 6,000 more pounds than last year.

Kristofik said his favorite part of the event is watching the Greek Goddess skits, where guys from the fraternities perform skits with a new member in each sorority.

“They work so hard at it and it takes a lot of work, especially how busy we are coming to the second half of the semester, going and practicing three nights a week in the sorority houses,” Kristofik said. “It’s fun to watch the guys up there dancing around and acting a fool.”

Every sorority had its own theme for the Greek Goddess event. Alpha Omicron Pi’s theme was “Circus” by Brittany Spears. Delta Zeta themed theirs to Justin Bieber songs, while Chi Omega’s theme was safari and Alpha Gamma Delta’s was the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders. 

Zeta Tau Alpha’s new member, Hallee Cooper, won the skit portion with a Michael Jackson-themed skit performance. 

Cooper, a first-year business major from Paragould, not only won the skit performance but the entire Greek Goddess portion of the event. 

“I love performing. I love drilling all these audiences in. I love the excitement people feel,” Cooper said. “I was really excited the entire time backstage. I was talking to them like ‘I’m so excited to show this’ because I knew how the audience would react and stuff like that.”

While the other sororities didn’t win the Greek Goddess event, Cooper said she wants them to know it wasn’t all for nothing.

“None of the time they spent was a waste. Everything was perfect. Everything was great,” Cooper said. “I loved everyone’s themes and they did really good and I’m proud of every single one of them.”

Cooper said they met around 10 p.m. three times a week for an hour to practice their skit. She prepped in her mind what she wanted the dance to look like within 45 minutes.

“I was like ‘I’m gonna do it’ and I talked to them and they were so excited that they really locked in,” Cooper said.

Although students participating in the Greek Goddess part of the competition didn’t work directly with other new members preparing for the event, Cooper said her sisters in Zeta have lifted her up and have been with her through preparations.

“My sisters are my family. We’ve only known each other for maybe two months, but they’re my family,” Cooper said.

During the chant portion of the competition, Zeta’s theme was the band “Queen,” Delta Zeta chose a Taylor Swift theme, Chi Omega’s theme was “High School Musical,” Alpha Gamma Delta did “Top Gun,” and Alpha Omicron Pi did a road trip.  

Bridgett Bruce, a Chi Omega first-year psychology major from Southhaven, Mississippi, said they spent hours during their week and weekends practicing their moves and chants.

Bruce said supporting philanthropy and cheering on the sororities were expected at the event. 

“Make sure we’re supporting everyone, supporting our own philanthropy as well as supporting Chop’s,” Bruce said. “Just raising money for them and helping them out, not only as ourselves but with the rest of our sisters down the row.”

The judges gave the win for the chants portion to Zeta as well; the sorority took home all the awards at the event except for the scholarship award, the pledge class with the highest GPA, which went to Alpha Gamma Delta. 

Abigail Spain, a senior strategic communication major from Milan, Tennessee, is the new member educator for Zeta and was in charge of all of Zeta’s Cream of the Crop entries.

Spain said she wanted to be the new member educator primarily because of her previous Cream of the Crop experience.

“It was awesome. It’s just such a bonding moment,” Spain said. 

Spain said she was extremely proud of her girls for sweeping the events, as Zeta also donated the most cans among the sororities, totaling more than 10,000 pounds worth.

“It has actually never been done before to win both full competitions. So that’s something that we really strived for. And they completely earned it,” Spain said. “They put their heart into it and they make the chapter whole. I’m just so grateful to get to watch them do that and be a part of it.”

Spain said her girls in Zeta are what keep her going and remind her of why she loves her sisterhood and chose it in the first place.

“They’re my cream of the crop,” Spain said, “I was truly blessed that God gave me these girls at the time He did, because they’re just so awesome, and they’re willing to do anything, and they get to watch me, what we call ‘Wreck it Ralph’ around the chapter room, and it’s just super fun.”

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