RIT’s Greek Community Joins National Gordie Day Observance Sept. 24

Event commemorates 1,700 students who die annually as a result of alcohol

Fraternity and sorority members at Rochester Institute of Technology will join thousands of college students from across the nation to send a sobering message to their peers—alcohol abuse has deadly consequences.

Members of RIT’s Greeks Advocating the Mature Management of Alcohol, or GAMMA, will participate in the second annual National Gordie Day observance from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 24, to raise awareness about the dangers of binge drinking and hazing. Participants will commemorate the lives of more than 1,700 students who die each year nationally as a result of alcohol-related incidents.

Organizers will set up 1,700 green flags along RIT’s Quarter Mile, between the August Center and the Schmitt Interfaith Chapel, to highlight this annual loss of lives. In addition, students will be asked to join the Circle of Trust, a peer-to-peer education program designed to promote awareness and keep the issue of alcohol abuse on the minds of students.

“We really want to get people thinking about the consequences when they are out drinking,” says Liane Schneegass, president of GAMMA. “Just by being a little more aware we can make sure that no one from RIT is part of that statistic.”

National Gordie Day is presented by The Gordie Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded in memory of Lynn Gordon Bailey Jr., a college freshman who died of alcohol poisoning following a fraternity hazing incident in 2004 at the University of Colorado. The Gordie Foundation’s mission is to provide today’s young people with the skills to navigate the dangers of alcohol, binge drinking, peer pressure and hazing.

There are 135 institutions and organizations registered to take part in this year’s National Gordie Day. For more information, visit www.gordie.org.


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