The men of Phi Gamma Delta, also known as FIJI, will host their sixth annual Miss Back Diamond pageant on Oct. 28 at 7 p.m. in the Rose and Alfred Miniaci Performing Arts Center of the Alvin Sherman Library to raise awareness and funds for Broward Partnership for the Homeless, Inc.
Miss Black Diamond is a pageant where nine women from various sororities and clubs will compete for the title of Miss Black Diamond. By participating in the pageant, competitors have the chance to showcase their personalities, promote their organizations and raise money for Broward Partnership for the Homeless.
Mano Murugappan, a junior biology major and contestant in this year’s Miss Black Diamond, said that Miss Black Diamond was the first Greek event she attended after being initiated in Delta Phi Epsilon and she had a blast.
Murugappan said, “Many people said this was the event that had me blossom from my shell into a bigger social light. I decided then I wanted to participate in the upcoming year and I did not want to back down from what I said I would do last year. I would love to win it for the third year in a row for Delta Phi Epsilon. It would also be a memorable experience for me for senior year.”
Contestants will compete in four themed rounds including a casual round, a mystery round based on the theme of espionage, a talent round and trivia round in which each contestant must answer a question about FIJI and Broward Partnership for the Homeless.
Andy Phan, recording secretary for Phi Gamma Delta, said in the weeks leading up to Miss Black Diamond, contestants participate in events and challenges to raise awareness and funds for the event and Broward Partnership.
Phan said, “Two weeks before this year’s Miss Black Diamond, we are going to have a service opportunity where we are going out to the homeless shelter to serve food to the people that are living there. The week of Miss Black Diamond contestants will be selling t-shirts and participating in an Instagram challenge. One of their challenges is to find as many FIJI brothers on campus [as they can] and post photos with them.
The four main criteria the contestants will be judged on are their involvement, which includes all of the events leading up to Miss Black Diamond, the money they raised, the Instagram challenge and their overall performance during the show.
“This will be the fourth or fifth time we actually are going out to the homeless shelter to serve the people living there and you get to hear their stories. They aren’t like the regular people on the streets. We stereotype them, saying they spend the money on alcohol or drugs but these are people that actually deserve a second chance,” Phan said.
In the past years, FIJI held the Miss Black Diamond competition in the Performance Center of the Don Taft University Center. So many people attended that audience members had to sit on the steps along the rows of seats. This year, by hosting the event in the Rose and Alfred Miniaci Performing Arts Center the fraternity hopes to have a greater audience. Overall, their goal this year is to bring the NSU community together to raise money for Broward partnership.
Phan said, “Miss Black Diamond is free for everyone to attend. This year we aren’t doing VIP tickets so the food that is there will be open to everyone. The direction we want to go in is to have as much attendance as possible.”
During the event, buckets will be passed around for each contestant and there will also be a credit card chip reader for audience members who would like to pay with a card. Those who want to donate to the organization before the event can do so through the fraternity’s GoFundMe as well as the contestants’ individual GoFundMe pages.
“This is probably going to be our biggest event yet. We are putting all our effort into this one so we just really want people to come out,” Phan said.
For more information about the event, contact Phan at ap1802@nova.edu. For more information about FIJI, visit their chapter website nsufiji.com.
