Kappa Sigma transforms into coffee house

Photo courtesy of Kappa Sigma

The Kappa Sigma Fraternity held their first annual Coffee House from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Feb. 25.

The Coffee House was a philanthropic event. All proceeds were donated to the Military Hero Campaign which aids wounded veterans and their families.

The Kappa Sigma fraternity at Tech was trying to plan the perfect event to support their national fraternity’s philanthropy. Previously, the fraternity only hosted annual chapter events in the fall to raise money and awareness for suicide prevention, but had no events tied to their national brotherhood.

Their other philanthropy event, Kick the Stigma, was an outdoor sporting event, so the Kappa Sigma Alpha Tau chapter president, Christian Kahf, fourth-year ENVE, pushed the idea of the Coffee House. An indoor event whose main activity is to sip coffee and listen to music is drastically different than the chapter’s fall tournament of kickball and bubble soccer.

As this was the first Coffee House that Kappa Sigma has hosted, the road to the actual event was filled with a lot of planning. Those plans needed to be flexible if the event was going to be a success.

First, the idea was to have the fraternity members serve the coffee but the plan changed. Instead, local coffee shops were hosted and served their own products. This cut the overall cost so more profit would reach charity. It was also logistically smoother since the coffee brewing was left to the professionals.

Preparations included organizing live music, reaching out to coffee roasters and coffee shops to help sponsor the event, advertising to the student body and setting up the interior of their
fraternity.

Noah Schiach, third-year ME, and a brother at Kappa Sigma  held many of the organizational responsibilities for this event in addition to building wooden tables to use at the event.

Schiach was already making tables for the Kappa Sigma house, but accelerated the process to have the tables done by the Coffee House date. All five new tables were put to good use during the event on Saturday.

The inside of the fraternity was designed to house the sponsors and the live music performances. It meant to give off the vibe of a local coffee shop and it succeeded as every detail was localized. The event showcased five different Atlanta Coffee Companies and local musicians, the band Junior Prom.

Christian Kahf said he hoped that “by transforming our house we created the same authentic and relaxing experience you would find at a coffee shop.”

The coffee shops were not the only sponsors, as the event held a raffle that gave away four tickets to the College Football Hall of Fame, a $100 gift card to Topgolf and other coffee-related swag and gift baskets.

T-shirts and coffee travel mugs were sold before and during the event. The coffee-stain logo for the Coffee House that appears on the front of the T-shirts and on the travel mugs was designed by Christian Kahf himself.

However, the most important takeaway from the event was the philanthropy. Though the event was sponsored by many companies, it was far from a commercial event, and it was successful enough that it solidified the fraternity’s plan to continue the Coffee House as an annual event.

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