The North Carolina Chapter went on an overnight retreat at
Roanoke Christian Service Camp on the Friday following Roundtable
interviews. This is a tradition in our
recruitment process and serves as a way for the candidates to be introduced to
the principles behind Alpha Zeta, as well as a way for them to get to know the
Brothers. The new members were also
introduced to themselves over dinner, which was pizza from Papa John’s. After dinner, the Brothers and candidates
participated in a trust walk. Each candidate
was asked if was okay to be blindfolded and led by their Big Brother to
different stations to learn about agricultural commodities. Some of the commodities included corn, sweet
potatoes, cashews, apples, etc. The
“Paddle Ceremony” followed the trust walk, and each candidate accepted her
paddle. Accepting the paddle meant that
each candidate acknowledged that she had to receive 39 active Brother
signatures and 50 alumni signatures upon it by the end of the week. They also learned the AZ motto: TEAM –
together everyone achieves more.
Breakfast was provided for everyone the next morning before
our service project. The camp manager
informed us that we had three different projects: demolishing an old snack
stand, moving picnic tables, and building a fence. This service project gave us a chance to give
back to the camp and served as a team building exercise between everyone.