Delta Tau Delta Fundraises with Knoephla

Delta Tau Delta fraternity dished out knoephla soup for a fundraiser Monday evening.

Because Delta Tau Delta does not yet have a house, the University Lutheran Center offered space for the event. The center was packed with people enjoying the knoephla soup meal.

Other Greek houses dressed up for the event, and groups of friends came to sit and talk while enjoying the soup.

Five dollars paid for a bowl of knoephla soup, a sandwich roll and a drink.

All proceeds from this fundraiser were donated to the Truancy Intervention Program at the Village Family Service Center. The program works to keep kids in school and lower truancy rates.

This is the second year the fraternity has hosted the knoephla soup feed. When trying to think of an idea for a fundraiser, someone suggested, “Knoephla soup is tasty,” Zastoupil said. The idea took off from there.

In order to make all the soup, the Delta Tau Delta men recruited some moms. The women help them out, but “they’re pretty much in charge,” Zastoupil said.

Last year there were about two to three hundred people at the fundraiser event, and this year at least four to five hundred were present, said Mike Zastoupil, philanthropy chair for the fraternity.

The increase in attendance was a welcome surprise, Zastoupil said. This year they changed the day of the event to Monday night “so the Greek houses could come,” he said. There was also a lot more public relations work leading up to the feed.

Travis Mack, public relations chair of the fraternity, said he used every form of advertising available to the organization.

The fraternity also printed five hundred posters to place around Fargo, used mailbox stuffers on campus, contacted everyone they knew, and used social media to their advantage, Mack said.

“We had around fifty guys change their [Facebook] cover photo to an advertisement all at once,” Mack said. He also created a Facebook page to promote the event.

Delta Tau Delta was brought to NDSU in spring of 2011. On April 28, 2012, they “chartered and became an official fraternity at NDSU,” Mack said.

The knoephla soup feed is Delta Tau Delta’s big fall fundraising event. In addition, the fraternity also organizes the Barefoot for Barefeet fundraiser in the spring.