Last Wednesday (Feb. 1) the sisters of the Alpha Lambda Chapter of Hermandad de Sigma Iota Alpha Inc. (SIA) hosted Solidarity Painting to bring students together and unify the campus.

As the old saying goes “a picture is worth a thousand words” and the multiple artists that attended the event helped to write a powerful story of unity. SIA works hard to spread this message of unity out to everyone on campus.

The afternoon was full of chatter and creative minds as students gathered in the Programing Space of Bartels to paint beautiful pictures. It was a fun filled event to take a little time away from schoolwork and to just relax.

Students were provided with a plain white canvas, a few different paints, some brushes, and set off to work to create their own works of art. Paintings ranged from beautiful trees made of dot art, to beach sunsets, to the Seattle Seahawks® logo, to burgundy birds resting under a starry night. Everyone put their creative skills to the test to create their own unique masterpieces.

According to Catherine Luna, vice president of the chapter, the sorority wanted to incorporate a fun activity into their Week of Solidarity. This Week of Solidarity is filled with a special event a night that the members of the sorority hold in support of bringing everyone together in unity and in harmony. The week kicked off on Monday with Gangs vs Geeks, a discussion about common misconceptions. Other events that took place during the week included a Presentation on Middle East Cultural Impact, which gave students the chance to write letters to refugees who wish to come to the United States.

All of these events being planned by Alpha Lambda focus on the concept of uniting the University campus together to share minds and thoughts, and to spread the message of equality and respect regardless of who you are.

“Solidarity is one of the Greek letters [of the Hermandad de Sigma Iota Alpha Inc.] and serves as one of our values of solidarity, unity, creativity… to promote cultural awareness and unity… We just try to not only uphold our values, but impact our values,” stated Luna.

Activities that the sorority planned for the week, such as the paint session, were all to help bring the students on campus together in peace and in unity. With such intense events happening around America involving refugees and the Middle East that have caused extreme division, bringing people together was a major goal of the sorority.

“The message to spread is that we can promote solidarity in any kind of form…” Luna said. They wanted to “promote acceptance. Promote unity in all differences,” and bring together various students through something as simple as painting to help overcome differences and unite as one show that the smallest of things can make a difference.