Provided

Sherina Giler '10, left, a member of Lambda Theta Alpha, participated in Sabado Gigante, a festival for children on the Ithaca Commons, during the Greek Tri-Council's Day of Demeter.

Cornell's Greek Tri-Council, the governing body of Cornell's nearly 70 fraternity and sorority chapters on campus, contributed more than $2,000 from a change drive and other fundraisers to benefit Suicide Prevention & Crisis Services of Tompkins County (SPCS) to increase suicide prevention efforts.

The funds, which are intended to ensure the continued availability of the Crisisline, especially its overnight service, were presented May 1 by Nathaniel Houghton '11, the council's vice president for university and community relations. The donation was part of the Greek Tri-Council's Day of Demeter, an annual community service day during which more than 300 students worked on some 15 projects in the community.

Houghton said that the council made the donation "in light of the events of this semester," and reflected some "student responses to the tragedies on our campus." The change drive was inspired by a new partnership between the council and Change for Change, a New York City-based national organization with a network of campus and workplace chapters. "Change for Change is based on the idea that if everyone contributed spare change to a charitable cause, together all of this small change could result in big changes," said Houghton.

Later in the day, students volunteered on such community service projects as cleaning out gardens, painting, weeding and seeding, landscaping, picking up trash and volunteering with children at various organizations around Ithaca, including the Sciencenter, Ithaca Children's Garden, Ellis Hollow Community Center, Cayuga Ridge Extended Care, East Ithaca Preschool and Ithaca YMCA.