Zeta Tau Alpha’s Upsilon Chapter, the 21st link in our Chain of Chapters, was reactivated on Saturday, Feb. 2, at the University of California, Berkeley.
Initiation Services for the new members were held Friday evening, Feb. 1 and Saturday morning, Feb. 2, at Hotel Shattuck Plaza in Berkeley by teams of collegians from Theta Phi (California State University, Fullerton) and Iota Eta (University of Nevada, Las Vegas) chapters. Saturday afternoon, chapter president Keely Porterfield was initiated prior to the Reactivation Service and Installation of Chapter Officers Service, which were performed by ZTA National President Keeley McDonald Riddle and Vice President Alumnae II Carolyn Hof Carpenter. These services were also held at Hotel Shattuck.
A celebratory dinner, chaired by Liz Bozek Krohn, was held following Reactivation at International House on the Cal campus for new members, family, friends, alumnae and university guests. Mrs. Carpenter served as toastmistress of the event. Traveling Leadership Consultant Adina Rothfeld gave the invocation while Upsilon Chapter music chairman Miranda Hart led the “Zeta Prayer.” Following lunch, Mrs. Riddle; Keely; Director of New Chapters Stephanie Rutledge Virag; and Cal Interim Director, Lead Center Jeff Woods also addressed the banquet.
“We have been blessed with an extraordinary and unique opportunity to make a lasting impression on our university, our Greek community, the city of Berkeley and our Fraternity,” Keely said in her remarks. I am so excited to make a new start for Zeta Tau Alpha on the UC Berkeley campus and to start living and breathing our new sisterhood.”
Per ZTA tradition, the chapter was presented with a silver tray and punch bowl set from the Fraternity by Mrs. Riddle and the traditional baby cup—symbolic of ZTA’s newest chapter—by TLCs Adina and Lesley Schreiber. DNCH Stephanie honored Keely with a president’s gavel.
Province Presidents Cindy Manual Calm (XIX-B) and District Presidents Rebecca Fox (XIX-B) and Annamaria Pensavalle Ahern (XIX-G) also presented gifts from area collegiate and alumnae chapters. Gifts included a banner from Theta Phi Chapter, a silver cup from Iota Eta Chapter to be engraved with each future Upsilon Chapter president’s name, and a Ritual trunk from the District XIX-B alumnae chapters in California. Within this trunk were turquoise badge bags for members from the Sacramento chapter, an engraved picture frame from Silicon Valley alumnae, an engraved crystal vase from the San Francisco-Marin Counties chapter, and engraved silver serving utensils from the East Bay chapter.
The chapter also received a special gift from California resident and former Vice President Alumnae II Gail Boyer Olson: the original silver candlesticks used by Upsilon Chapter during Ritual.
Area alumnae also helped Upsilon members with the gift of education. District XIX-B also created two new ZTA Foundation scholarships to given to Upsilon members, while South Bay, CA Alumnae Chapter member Martha Miller Girdlestone funded an endowed scholarship for the chapter. Executive Director Deb Ensor presented the university with a $1,000 donation to its general scholarship fund on behalf of the ZTA Foundation.
Upsilon Chapter was originally installed on May 14, 1915, and was active until 1969. Zeta Tau Alpha was selected to return to Cal in spring 2011, and recolonization recruitment efforts began in Sept. 2012.