Now until February 29th, Skulls (Phi Kappa Sigma) fraternity is running a winter clothing drive in conjunction with Lancaster County Food Hub, a local resource center for food, clothing, and emergency shelter. Sean O’Connor, former philanthropy chair, shared a few words about his experience in Skulls and the fraternity’s current initiatives. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Nora Williams: To start off, what position do you hold in Skulls, and how do you fit into the fraternity as a whole?
Sean O’Connor: Last semester, I was our treasurer and philanthropy chair, but we’re currently in the process of officer transition, so I’m no longer the treasurer and philanthropy chair. Currently, I’m our fundraising and risk-management chair, so my responsibilities have shifted a little bit from philanthropy and finances more towards fundraising and safety in general.
NW: Do you like being a part of Skulls?
SC: Yeah, I do. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I didn’t join Skulls. Probably have a lot more time. (laughs)
NW: How long has Skulls been engaged in philanthropy work in the community?
SC: I’m not entirely sure, but I believe my chapter has been doing philanthropic work since the start, since the chapter was founded in 1854.
[Note: All Greek life organizations are required to participate in philanthropy.]
NW: Can you tell me a bit about the purpose of the winter clothing drive, and your partnership with the Lancaster County Food Hub?
SC: We chose Lancaster County Food Hub because last semester we did a food drive for them right before the holidays that was really successful. We were able to donate over a hundred pounds of food. But I learned of Lancaster County Food Hub two summers ago. I worked at PSSI [Public Service Summer Institute], and our topic for that summer was food insecurity. I learned that the Lancaster County Food Hub is the main food and clothing hub for people in Lancaster County, so I thought it would be a great charity for us to work with.
NW: Thinking about Skulls as it is now, what makes you most proud of the fraternity?
SC: That’s a hard question. I mean, we’ve definitely been more involved with the campus community in the last year or two than we have been in a while, so I’m definitely proud that we’re doing more philanthropic events, more fundraisers, and just more things to get the campus community involved in general.
NW: Do you see philanthropy as an essential part of fraternity life?
SC: It definitely is. You know, we’re an organization, we’re a good group of guys, and we have the time and resources to do some good, so we just want to help our community as much as we can with the time we have.
NW: Is there anything else that you’d like to add, or that you’d like people to know about the clothing drive?
SC: We originally advertised it as hats, gloves, and scarves, but people can donate whatever winter clothes that they want. We just want to make sure that people are warm, you know? But we also didn’t want to explicitly say to donate coats, because I believe that another organization is doing a coat drive, so we just didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes.
The Winter Clothing Drive drop box will be available in the College Center until the 29th of February, accepting new/gently used hats, scarves, gloves, and any other winter clothing.
Skulls will be having a Bake Sale in the College Center next week from 10 a.m. -12 p.m. and 5 – 7 p.m. Half of the proceeds will go to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Nora Williams ‘26 is a Contributing Author. Their email is nwillia1@fandm.edu.