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Raising Arizona
The state of Arizona is known for vast areas of nothing. Long stretches of sandy deserts, rocky passes and cactus between metropolitan areas are a common sight when traveling. Until recently, Sinfonia’s presence was as noticeable as signs of life in the hot desert. A recent string of events has restarted an area void of Sinfonia for almost a decade.
At one time, Arizona hosted chapters at the University of Arizona (Alpha Upsilon), Arizona State University (Kappa Nu) and Northern Arizona University (Kappa Xi). Part of Province 35, Arizona is one of three states, along with most of New Mexico and the panhandle of Texas, that comprise the Fraternity’s largest province by size. Five chapters existed at |
The men of Kappa Xi took part in a Mills Music Mission at a local retirement home. |
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one time, but all fizzled out by the late 90’s with Kappa Xi being the final chapter to go inactive. With no active entities, the whole province became a “ghost town.”
Within the last two years, the fraternal landscape in Arizona began to change. There was a realization that older generations tend to move south and our alumni may be populating these areas. Knowing that many re-locate to Arizona, it was time to look at finding a way to wake a sleeping giant. A recent transplant to area,
Stephen Courtright, Beta Iota (Albion) ’01, started by taking some of the tasks of a Province Alumni Coordinator (PAC).
But this was only a prologue to what has about to happen. Suddenly, two colonies, one at Northern Arizona University and the other at the University of Texas-El Paso, sprung out of nowhere. The need to reactivate the province and establish leadership became a priority. Courtright was appointed as Province Governor and charged to lead a province with colonies almost 600 miles and over 8 hours apart.
“I accepted the offer and had to hit the ground running because we had two colonies and one of them was almost ready to submit for Phase II of the process,” Courtright recalls.
The Kappa Xi brothers after their initiation. |
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Don Hassler, Delta Zeta (Oklahoma City) ’48, was asked by Courtright to step in as PAC. Hassler had been in recent contact with the National Headquarters exploring alumni options in the Phoenix area. He had already established contact with a number of alumni he met in local ensembles. While he didn’t fit the current youth movement of leaders, his initiative to develop an alumni network made him a natural choice for the position.
“I lived in the area for a long time and I always thought that more should be happening,” Hassler comments. “Obtaining e-mail addresses has been a big breakthrough for me. I’ve been keeping in touch with alumni by e-mail which started around the Alumni Road Trip visit in March 2008. I’ve found guys who have moved to the area that are very interested in alumni activities.” |
While Hassler was nurturing the alumni movement in central Arizona, another development was taking place just to north in Flagstaff. A number of students from Northern Arizona University were looking to resolve some issues of camaraderie within the fine arts department. They found themselves frustrated as there was no outlet to which they could turn. They searched the internet for music fraternities and found the web page for Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. After some initial discussions within their group, they decided to hold an interest meeting to bring the idea to other students.
“We ended up having 40 people come to [the meeting],” explains David Wimett, Kappa Xi (Northern Arizona) ’08. “We never expected to be as large as it has become.”
Oddly enough, the men who worked to reactivate the chapter had no idea that the Fraternity had already existed on campus. It wasn’t until a faculty member brought them the chapter’s flag that they were made aware of its history. This gave them a greater sense of perspective and motivated them to discover more information about the Fraternity.
“When we first looked through the history of Phi Mu Alpha, we realized it was a group of guys that got together and talked about issues and frustrations,” states Wimett. “It hit home with us because we were dealing with the same things. The organization reaffirmed everything that we wished to change.”
Even with the recent activity, there are still some hurdles for this region. While other provinces have chapters that share the same city, the closest chapter to Flagstaff isn’t even within their own province, but rather in Los Angeles, which is over six hours away.
Courtright comments, “These guys didn’t have a big brother chapter. We have a core group of alumni in the Phoenix area and providing support the best that they can. The chapter has relied heavily on alumni to make sure ceremonies can happen.”
With the reactivation of the Kappa Xi chapter on October 26, the expansion of Sinfonia in this area isn’t likely to end soon. The possibility of an alumni association in the Phoenix/Tempe area has started to take shape. Additionally, recent news of a colony starting on the Arizona State University campus has begun to circulate.
“These guys are looking for something on campus that doesn’t exist. They are looking at existing music organizations and other social fraternities and find that they don’t fulfill what they are looking for,” explains Courtright.
Wimmet adds, “Anything that we have wanted to accomplish, we have found a way to accomplish it. The morale and motivation of our group has grown exponentially.”
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