Members of the UF Greek community served up mountainous piles of poultry and baked goods Tuesday for the Chicken Wing Charity Thing.
The 26 Interfraternity Council chapters and 16 Panhallenic Council sororities raised $6,000 for Children’s Miracle Network at Shands Children’s Hospital, $1,000 more than last year.
CMN is a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising money to give to children’s hospitals across the country.
Each fraternity served a pan of 800 wings, totaling 20,800 varieties including nuclear hot, southern spice, naked buffalo and chicken parmesan.
Each sorority baked a dessert, including chocolate-chip Oreo cookies, fruit pizza, cinnamon rolls and red velvet cake.
All entries were judged by a panel.
Sigma Kappa Sorority’s red velvet cake won for a second time, while Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity won for its wing assortment.
Nancy Chrystal-Green, director of the UF Center for Student Activities and Involvement, was a judge.
“I’m really proud of the Greek community for doing this event,” she said.
Corey Portnoy, executive vice president of the Interfraternity Council, said he was proud of the turnout.
“We hope this is something that will continue for years,” he said.
Calvin Lee, 18, a beneficiary of CMN, took the stage of the bandshell at Flavet Field to thank the 1,200 chicken wing-eaters for their contributions.
Lee spent much of his childhood at Shands Children’s Hospital enduring dialysis for his renal disease. He went through 62 surgeries and finally received a successful kidney transplant seven years ago from his mother.
Lee is a senior on the Eastside High School wrestling team and was the strongest in his weight class this year. Four years ago doctors told him he wouldn’t be able to wrestle at all.
“If it weren’t for the Children’s Miracle Network,” he said, “I would not be here today.”
