In this issue:
Message from Sigma Tau Chi Alumni Association President Howard Botting
Hello to my Brother's both near and far. I'm hoping this past holiday season at the end of a tumultuous 2021, finds all of you and your families to be happy and healthy. For the Christmas/Winter break I enjoyed the week off from my classroom. As no doubt you've heard, the return to school full-time has not been without incident or problems. However, I feel fortunate to have a minimal amount of either in my classroom. Looking back on this past year, it has definitely been a frustrating year. While we were able to make great progress on our house repairs in 2020, the work planned for spring stalled prematurely due to some health issues with our normal contractor. One thing that the covid virus has shown is a distinct lack of skilled trades persons available to do construction work. This fact, coupled with many people being forced to spend more time at home, and making them develop a list of projects they'd like to see accomplished, has increased the demand level for skilled trades. While I've had multiple interviews with contractors, I've yet to find someone to take over our projects. They are just too darn busy with current work to schedule our house. We currently have all the columns for the north side of the house sitting in the basement. Unfortunately we cannot put them up until the rest of the exterior work is done. I'm hoping that by Springtime our “normal” contractor will be up to finishing the exterior repairs. I'm still continuing to look for other options and trying to find competent contractors in the Oswego area. If anybody in the upstate New York area has any suggestions or knows anybody that can do repairs please let me know. While everybody I've talked to so far is very enthusiastic, their follow through is not acceptable.
With these issues in mind I have started planning for an alumni work project from Thursday April 27th to Saturday April 30. All alumni are invited and encouraged to attend and help out if possible. Tentative goals are to put up several columns where the walls have been repaired and to possibly tackle the wall at the back of the kitchen, and the overhangs where the dance floor faces Montcalm Street. Once these two areas are repaired, we can install the columns.
While 2021 did not go as well as we had hoped, we did have a number of things that were completed. All of the wood trim on the house was painted by Minetto Painting. We are waiting for them to return in the spring to address some repair issues with our soffits. All in all, the house looks very nice after getting a fresh coat of white paint.
Brother Matt Mahan has been working on a patio area on the north side of the house adjacent to the old garage.
We have new industrial grade stairs (replacing a porch last seen in the late 60’s early 70’s) courtesy of Brother Todd Chase.
We will also be opening up the doorway at the end of the hallway outside the kitchen to access the new stairs and patio. This should keep the neighbors happy and give the Brothers an area to gather and celebrate out of sight of the neighbors.
I had a meeting with an architect to help plan for a future project, the replacement and improvement of the Montcalm Street entry. I’m hoping to have drawings to present to the alumni at the 2022 alumni reunion.
The most recent White Rose Queen- Jay Amico (AEPhi)- has been busy around the house painting murals- the newest under the main stairs. Looks amazing, doesn’t it?
Yours in Brotherhood- Howard Botting S’86
Message from 1st VP, Reunion Coordinator Gary Maher
Dear Brothers:
I hope this message arrives and finds you in good health and enjoying life to its fullest. The Reunion Committee has been hard at work trying to organize for our upcoming (and slightly delayed) 75th Alumni Reunion. As you may know, last years event was postponed due to Covid, but we still had around 20 guys show up at the house to see what was going on.
I’m happy to say that the improvements on the house are still coming along slowly, but moving forward and looking great. It is our hope that by this year’s event, we’ll have a few more improvements in place to show off, but I will leave that to Howard Botting to discuss.
The Reunion Committee has been hard at work looking for vendors to handle the food, rent tents, tables, chairs for the party, anything you need, we’ve been planning on it. Since the beginning of December, we’ve been reaching out to a local Oswego business, the Woodchuck Saloon, to handle the food. Importantly, after a number of calls (and a personal visit by a group of Alumni) we still have not retained anyone for the food. If you feel that you might be able to assist us in getting someone to cook, please let us know as soon as possible.
We are planning on having anywhere from 200 to 250 people for the Reunion. Most of the hotels in town have been booked since last June when we advised of the postponement of last year's event. There might be some scattered rooms that are available out on the east side of Oswego, and there are always rooms available on campus. When that information is available, we will forward it to you.
We have always tried to make our events better than the previous year, and we are hoping to make this event extra special to celebrate our long history. This year's event is to take place June 10-12th. The cost of the event is $175 if purchased before April 15th. For tickets purchased on or after April 15th the price is $225. payment can be sent to Dave Morgan, Our Alumni Social Chairman or purchased online here: https://www.sigmatauchi.org/event-info/sigma-tau-chi-76th-alumni-reunion
Thank you all for your time and I look forward to seeing many of you at the upcoming 75+1 Sigma Tau Chi Alumni Reunion.
Yours in Brotherhood,
Gary G. Maher
Reunion Committee
A message from Sentinel Peter DeMarco
Our magnificent mansion by the lake is looking exceptional. We have the wind at our back with brighter days ahead. Sig Tau is bouncing back, we are once again growing, membership is encouraging and we have an excellent group of Actives.
The Moon Mist scholarship has been established with 500 bucks per semester being awarded to an in house Brother towards their rent.
Ethan Williams from Rome NY was the first recipient this F2021. The scholarship is funded through a separate account with Alumni donations and fundraisers. This is an excellent way to advance our Alumni/Active relationship.
There are many projects underway at the house of Blue and our reunion in June should be a blast… This group of actives have navigated the covid epidemic and hopefully this semester things get back to somewhat normal.
For the second year some of the actives brought in the New Year at the house of blue. All went well and their was life in the house which i like to see.
If you would like to donate to the scholarship you can send me a check or Venmo me. Actives seem to really like the scholarship. All funding is transparent. We all know what it is like to be a broke college kid, 500 bucks really helps them out...cheers!
I will be selling 50/50 raffle tix to help support the scholarship.
Yours in Brotherhood...PZ F86
Peter B DeMarco 914.589.8280
Wpnybattlehill@yahoo.com
Spring 2022 President, Piero Giovanni Fratto
Happy New Years to all brothers, I'm hoping everyone had a safe and relaxing holiday. My name is Piero Fratto and it's truly an honor and blessing to be elected President and to represent our fraternity in such a way. We are preparing for this upcoming semester and excited to see what our future holds!
This semester, we are starting off with 26 active brothers after we just welcomed 9 new brothers: Benjamin Khaykin, Noah Woldu, Riley Weppner, Salvator Brucculeri, Anthony Saporito, Ethan Vann, Andrew Balch, RJ Szalenski and Troy Crowder to the House of Blue. I'm confident we will be on a solid footing for years to come as
16 out of 26 brothers are sophomores and with the expectation of a strong Freshman Class this year, we will reach our goal of 45 in no time.
As we grow as a fraternity, I have to make sure structure is kept throughout the house and each elected official is abiding to the responsibility and requirements of their position. I will also make sure we represent ourselves to the school and our community in a professional way. Financially we are in decent standings, as we plan to continue funding improvements throughout the house. Lastly, planning more brother bonding events will take place this semester, as-well as bringing back traditions that were lost throughout the years.
I'm very confident in each elected official and the brothers ability to accomplish great things this semester. We will continue to make memories as we grow closer together as brothers. I'm excited to meet you all for the 76th Annual Reunion.
YIB,
“Materazzi” F’20
Spring 2022 Pledge Master, Clayton R. DeMarco
Hello Brothers! I hope that all is well with you and your families this holiday season! This past fall I was elected to be the next Pledge Master for Spring 2022. I am very excited to fill the big shoes of the PM.
For this upcoming semester I am looking for roughly 12-15 gators to join the ranks of Sigma Tau Chi. If we reach this goal, this will be the biggest pledge class since the rebirth of brothers since Fall 2019. Although 12-15 sounds like a lot, it's all about the quality, not the quantity. We want to make sure that the potentials are exceptional young men ready to take the next step in becoming brothers.
Over this next semester I have two pledge projects planned for the gators. The first project being the installation of the back door for the Moon Mist Patio. The second project is the installation of a flagpole with a light display for the front lawn of the house. This will be a nice addition to the property to properly display the American Flag and our gator flag. With those two projects, gators will also be doing other things around the house to spruce it up. I look forward to working with Howard and others on these projects. Contributions towards these efforts are greatly appreciated and go a long way into making the house look fantastic.
This is a journey not just for me but for all brothers. I am excited to teach these pledges about our great history and traditions. I can’t wait to see the group of guys we get in.
If you would like to reach out to me, my contacts are below.
Cell #: (914)-574-3109
Email: clay.demarco99@gmail.com
Yours in Brotherhood,
Clayton R. DeMarco, Reise F’19
Spring 2022 House President, Victor Diaz
As winter break comes to an end and as we approach the Spring 22’ semester, I cannot wait to be back in the beautiful mansion of Sigma Tau Chi with all of my brothers. To be elected House President is nothing but a huge honor for me, I will take immediate action and make sure whatever has to get done, gets done the right way. My main goal is to continue upgrading rooms around the house and to get more beautiful paintings done on the walls by our wonderful White Rose, Ms. Jenna Amico.
Victor Diaz “GLATT” SP’ 21
Spring 2022 Vice President, Daniel Malinowski
Hello brothers of Sigma Tau Chi and happy new year, I am Brother Daniel “Bertel” Malinowski F’19 OP and I have been given the opportunity to be our Vice President for the coming Spring 2022 semester. Fortunately we’ve been able to maintain a good relationship with the Oswego Police Department the past few semesters and I hope to continue that as our new active Vice President. One of my goals for the spring semester is to make sure the boys know how to represent themselves and the fraternity as a whole whenever we’re downtown at the bars, on campus, or anytime we’re in the public eye. That way we’ll have a good reputation with the community and less trouble will come our way because of it. I’m excited to be one of the oldest brothers in the house and work alongside Brother Piero as President to keep the House of Blue great. Thank you Gentlemen.
YIB,
Daniel “Bertel” Malinowski
Spring 2022 Treasurer, Ethan Vann
Hello Brothers of Sigma Tau Chi, my name is Brother Ethan ‘Woody’ Vann and I am honored to take on the role of Treasurer in the upcoming Spring 2022 semester. Brother Christian Treichler has done an amazing job filling this role for the last couple of semesters and I am very pleased to learn from him. The F ‘21 Semester called for some very amazing and well planned out Philanthropy events organized by Brother Clayton DeMarco. These events gave us the opportunity to raise an unbelievable amount of money which could have not been possible without the psych from all of Sigma Tau Chi. Furthermore, we ran a handful of events which helped us end the semester on a positive note. Functions at different bars raised an incredible amount of money; thus meaning we will continue to host more and more functions this coming semester. My role as treasurer is to shadow the house's spending and raising whilst maximizing the potential of the coming semester. All in all, growing numbers will positively correlate to the success of Sig Tau and our overall wealth.
Sig Tau #1.
Ethan “Woody” Vann
Spring 2022 Philanthropy Chair, Julian Arvanitis
For the upcoming spring semester, I will be getting help from the past philanthropy officer Brother Clayton Demarco F’19 with helping me connect with people that he has worked with the past two semesters to make this semester just as great. I intend to keep the tradition of keeping a positive light on our fraternity and brotherhood. Ideas that i have for this upcoming and will want to move on are, a Fundraiser for cancer, An Oswego Frat Olympics (An idea from Brother Noah Woldu S’21), which will consist of having Fraternity’s complete challenges and Sporting events to raise money for a charity. An event that we can host with the Oswego Police Department, it could be an event we host on campus that can teach students and teachers safety procedures that we can use if we are in a situation where someone needs saving. I would also like to try and incorporate another event like our biggest event last year , Eat With Sig Tau that we had with the sorority SDT. We had a huge show out for that event and made upwards of $2,000. I want to keep up the great work that we did last semester and bring it into this one.
Yours in Brotherhood,
Julian Arvanitis, Plato SP’21
As always, your donations are greatly appreciated and can be easily made here:
Alumni Officers:
President - Howard Botting
1st VP, Reunion Coordinator - Gary Maher
2nd VP - James Guilbeault
Alumni Treasurer - David Morgan
House Treasurer - Jeffry Langdon
Legal Council - Steven Baker
Corresponding Secretary - Greg (Louie) Clark
Webmaster - Adam Kapp
Recording Secretary - Bill Foose
Sentinel - Peter DeMarco
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