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Groove Phi Groove Social Fellowship Holds Coat Drive

By Jasmine Carr

In this season of joy and cold days, the brothers of the Bulldog One Chapter of Groove Phi Groove Social Fellowship decided to work in conjunction with Bowie State University Honors Program to collect coats.

During the coat drive from Dec. 4-5, students asked faculty, staff and students to donate old coats, sweatshirts, hats and scarves, etc. The coat drive was held in the Wiseman Center ticket booth. The brothers said they chose to collect coats because they felt an obligation to help those less fortunate. The coast drive is a national initiative dating back to the Mother Bear Chapter of Groove Phi Groove Social Fellowship at Morgan State University in 1962.

The Bulldog One Chapter of Groove Phi Groove Social Fellowship has just begun to take part in this drive to help a facility for abused children and battered women in Bethesda who have no other alternatives when they or their children are from abusive households. It allows them a safe place to go and a chance to find a place to restart their lives. It is a program set up by the Montgomery County Human Services Division.

Bowie State University Groove Phi Groove Social Fellowship members said there has been cooperation, but there can always be more. It's never too late to help out. For the organization, the coat drive gives them a way to give back to their respective communities since they say "they are blessed to have so much."

Groove Phi Groove Social Fellowship Inc. was created to "empower and educate the people in our communities" on Oct. 12, 1962. The organization was founded by 14 young men at Morgan State. The organization has more than 150 chapters and 40,000 members worldwide.

Groove Phi Groove Social Fellowship's mission states: "To better serve our communities, the men of Groove Phi Groove Social Fellowship, Inc. have pledged to support endeavors that project positive images of black American men and help to move us forward. This is an increasingly important challenge, as many people tend to focus on only the negative elements. We don't want to lose sight of those achievements that required the anguish, blood, and lives of the many black Americans who were essential in building this nation. 

"The men of Groove Phi Groove have accepted the challenge and recognize that our future success depends on our ability to serve as positive role models who will instill positive moral values in both our own children and those young, black American boys and men who may not have positive male influences in their lives."