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Dear Alumnae, Angels and Parents,
My name is Jeanie
Tomeny, and I am the President of the Chapter House
Corporation for Vermont Beta. I graduated from the
University of Vermont (UVM) in 2008, and have been
serving in this role since July of 2013. In this short
amount of time, our beloved chapter house has been
through a lot. For those of you that don’t know, our
house is the only chapter house at UVM that was built
for the organization that still inhabits it. Our alumnae
raised the money for the chapter house in the 1920’s,
purchased the land from UVM in 1930, and the house was
built and ready for move-in in October of 1931. The
house was intended to be a gift for all past, present,
and future Vermont Beta Pi Phi’s. It has served us very
well for 83 years, and I plan to keep her standing for
at least another 83 years!
On November 6, my
biggest fear came true –– we had a fire in the chapter
house. It gives me goose bumps just writing it.
Thankfully, no one was injured, and the in-house women
acted quickly to save our cherished home. In fact, their
actions were so fast and intelligent, they received a
written commendation from the Burlington Fire
Department, and the UVM fire marshal. That said, there
was significant damage to the upstairs bathroom, as the
fire took place in the bathroom ceiling. The fire
department used minimal water in the attic and spared
further damage to the house. However, because some of
the wiring was damaged in the attic, the women were
displaced from November 6 until they returned from
winter break on January 11. The women ended up spending
a total of 29 nights in a hotel. They were troopers, and
it’s so amazing to have them home again where they
belong!
While the young women
were displaced, I had work crews in the house and had
multiple other renovation projects completed. Most of
these projects, such as the new kitchen floor, were on
my “to-do” list. But, I had planned to complete them
over a five-year timeframe. With the fire damage an
opportunity presented itself to get more accomplished,
so I took it! We also uncovered and fixed some issues I
didn’t even know we had yet. Though the fire was a
terrifying nightmare, a lot of good has come of it. I
now think of the house as a phoenix –– rising anew from
the ashes –– better than ever before. For a complete
list of recent renovations, see the Housing Renovation
List insert.
While the house looks absolutely
amazing, and I’ve been told it’s built like Fort Knox,
there is still much work to be done. We’ve just
discovered we have some plumbing issues outside the
house and some of the appliances will need to be
replaced in the next year or so. The house could also
use a bit of an exterior facelift.
One of these exterior projects is
the brick walkway. And here’s where I get to my point ––
we’re selling engraved bricks to repave the walkway! We
had a bit of help loosening up the current bricks from a
nearby fraternity in the fall. Now is as good a time as
any to repave it! My goal is to have the work completed
this summer. The existing engraved bricks will be put
back into the walkway, but we want to add more names!
This project will be a win-win-win. More women can have
their names and their time at VT Beta commemorated, our
walkway will get repaved and we’ll raise the needed
funds for this and hopefully future projects. An
engraved brick is a great way to “leave your mark” on
369 and would make an excellent graduation gift for our
current seniors. It would also be a lovely way to honor
your or your daughter’s time and experience as a
collegiate member of Pi Beta Phi.
The
minimum donation for each brick is $175. You may get
your name (maiden and married, if you’d like) and your
graduation year engraved on your brick. For current
collegians, the expected graduation year is fine or you
may leave the year off if you prefer.
Sorry, no rhinestones
or glitter. I checked.
We will also be having an open
house around the time of Founders’ Day, on April 11. I,
and all the amazing women on AAC who have been
supporting me through all this, would love for you to
come see the house!
In the wine and silver blue,
Jeanie
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