Generally at the end of the fall semester, freshmen up to the seniors have had enough with school. Some are ready to move onto the next semester, while others can't wait to graduate. Until the fall semester ends, the brothers of Kappa Sigma decide to have one final "brothers in action" event before we all break off to our families for the holidays. What is the event you may ask? Well my friends, it's the annual trip to Shady Maple in Lancaster. It has been a tradition of the Kappa-Eta chapter of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity at Widener University for the past few years now, and I was privilege to be a part of if for the past two.

Shady Maple is a smorgasbord/buffet style restaurant. The place is decorated with the Christmas trees, lights, and a section where children can get a picture with Santa. The food choices are numerous ranging from fried chicken, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, desserts, cereals, noodles, and much more. It's essentially a second Thanksgiving if you ask any of us. The fun isn't just having the nice meal though. After the dinner, we all get a nice big group picture wearing our letters proudly for everything this fraternity stands for: Fellowship, Leadership, Scholarship, and Service, and our philanthropy, the Military Heroes Campaign.

After everyone is full, Shady Maple has a gift shop downstairs in case if you wanted to get a little something for that special someone for the holiday season. They have toys, sports gear, and jewelry just to name a few. The toy section reminded me of the time when one of our brothers, Mike Cotter, was fascinated with the magnet rocks where you could throw them on a metal sheet and they'd stick .He literally laughed at everyone he threw as we all gathered around. It's the little things in life that make us happy.

Events like Shady Maple gives us and everyone else two lessons in life:

1. It shows that fraternity men can have fun without a single drop of alcohol and that we can defy the stereotype of fraternities with having annual events like these.

2. It's an event to cherish every moment of because you only live once. Once we all go on break and once we all graduate, it may be difficult to connect with the fraternity as a whole since we're all going to have great careers. Shady Maple was and is a memory for us in our hearts. Always.

For my brothers here at Widener and to the rest of my Kappa Sigma brothers all over the United States, Happy Holidays and AEKDB!