Will You Be One of the 85 for 85?
Dear Brothers,
It's Sunday night, March 1, and I just finished a fantastic weekend in Phoenix with four great friends whom I never would have met if it weren't for my brotherhood at Phi Kappa Theta. My big brother Eric Malkin, Joe Hannum, Mike Maxwell, Syed Hoda and I spent some quality time together over these last four days, primarily golfing, catching some Guardians spring training games, playing competitive putt putt at Pop Stroke and eating a lot more food than would normally be considered healthy for people in our age group. A good time was had by all and we hope to make it an annual event.
My history with the fraternity didn't follow the customary timeline of most brothers. I was a late joiner, not knowing much about the Phi Kap House until the summer after my junior year. Having lived on the south side of CWRU my first three years, my limited awareness of the Phi Kaps primarily consisted of the Labor Day bash and the really interesting house where the brothers lived. My girlfriend at the time became a summer boarder in 1986, and my visits to see her from my hometown in Springfield, Illinois gave me the opportunity to meet some of the brothers who were also living there, and to hear about the history and uniqueness of the fraternity. I was hooked.
What an opportunity to own your own house and property as a college fraternal organization, as well as share that responsibility with other like minded young men. Having learned a number of home improvement skills growing up, I knew that I had something to contribute to the upkeep of our house beyond the basics. But I can still remember some of the challenges from those 80s years in making sure we had a functioning boiler to heat our home, consistent hot water to prevent cold showers and electricity to provide the light for the late nights studying. Certainly many things have changed since 1987 when Syed, Russ Reynolds and a few other brothers researched and purchased the fraternity's first MS DOS operating system computer manufactured by PC Limited, the precursor to Dell Computers. In case anyone forgot where the computer was based, it was in the closet at the top of the stairs on the third floor. But the bottom line is that the fraternity at the time was only able to function because of the guidance and generosity of Ernie Schmidt.
Our house at 11016 Magnolia has seen many upgrades over the years - many of them from the skilled hands of the brothers and volunteer alumni at that time, and some due to the contractors that needed to be hired to handle the projects that required that much more knowhow. I can't say how any single one of them was funded, but I'm sure that some of their costs pushed up against the fraternity's limited funds and might have involved belt tightening with the basics. With the Ernie Schmidt Fund, we as alumni with our individual monthly contributions have the opportunity to carry on our brother Ernie's legacy and keep our house up to date with the modern day conveniences that are necessary to keep the fraternity competitive in the CWRU undergraduate housing market. I hope you will join me in becoming a new member of the Ernie Schmidt Fund.
YITB -
Joe Jirgal '88
.png)
We are sending this to all of our brothers, even if you are already in the Ernie Schmidt Club, to share another brother's message of support. If you are already a member, thank you for your continued support!
