The Sigma Chi fraternity started their Derby Days challenge this week, raising $11,200. The Derby challenge is a friendly competition between other chapters of Sigma Chi throughout their fraternity. The main goal of the challenge is to raise funds for cancer research at the Huntsman Cancer Foundation, the preferred philanthropy of Sigma Chi.

The goal for the fraternity is a 7-year commitment to raise $11 million by 2021 for the Huntsman Cancer Foundation. Since 2014, the Sigma Chi fraternity has raised $6 million. The chapter at the university managed to raise $11,200 in five days. Over the past two years, the chapter  has raised $20,000 and was ranked ninth place out of 244 chapters within the fraternity.

From Monday Oct. 16 to Thursday Oct. 19, the fraternity held a series of events during the day and ended with an event at night. This is a change from other years, where the events were held in the spring semesters.

Teams are created to compete during the events and to help assist in raising funds with assistance from a Derby Daddy. A Derby Daddy is a brother in Sigma Chi who helps assist the team throughout the week and follows any orders from the team members.

The week of events started with pumpkin painting, derby hats, a lip-syncing, an obstacle course in the Bixler/Gerber quad and a series of mini events on Thursday.

“In the past we’ve done banners, but we tried to better gauge the season as we had a transition this past year from the spring to the fall,” said Nicholas Aubrey, a co-philanthropy chair.

The derby hats involved the brothers of Sigma Chi to wear hats and have other brothers try to get their hat. One of the mini events was Derby Daddy dress up. This involved the teams to dress their Derby Daddy in any clothing the members desire. Aubrey said that it’s kind of like a male beauty pageant, but defined by girls.

Since moving the events to the fall semester, the chapter hasn’t determined a winner. More events will take place throughout the semester, meaning teams will have more chances to become a winner. The chapter will formally recognize the winning teams at a recognition dinner at the end of the fall semester.

“I really want to thank the campus and the campus community as they made all our efforts possible for the past two years. We’ve been able raise over twenty thousand dollars for Huntsman Cancer Foundation and it means a lot to us,” Aubrey said.