By Thea Jarvis

For the past year, the Georgia Tech Chapter of Phi Kappa Sigma has helped Migration and Refugee Services (MRS) provide a welcome to Vietnamese refugees in Atlanta.

A happy marriage of service and need, the work of the fraternity helps the brothers fulfill their goal of community involvement while offering real assistance to clients of MRS.

Migration and Refugee Services is a unit of Catholic Social Services, Inc.

This fall, two to four Phi Kapps have volunteered each Tuesday and Thursday afternoon to pick up donations of furniture and deliver them to Vietnamese families in the Grant Park area.

"We're out here because we want to help people," said Chris Schultz, a Tech sophomore from Tulsa, OK, who took a break from studies to pick up mattresses and box springs at an east Atlanta location. "We're not just filling the philanthropy quota for hours."

David Fletcher, Phi Kappa Sigma's philanthropy chairman and a junior from Mobile admitted it isn't always easy to round up volunteers on a hectic college schedule, but the fraternity considers it a priority.

"People are really busy. You can't push too hard," Fletcher said, but he encourages his brothers to give at least 20 hours per person each quarter.

Saumil Shah of Macon and Jake Isaacs of Frankfort, KY, freshman pledges who accompanied Schultz and Fletcher on the pickup, both had done service work in high school. But their fraternity philanthropy was a new experience.

Working with Migration and Refugee Services has meant "more hands on" opportunities to meet people he is helping, Isaacs said. "It's not usually this in-depth."

Rhoda Donnelly, who coordinates volunteers for MRS, said Phi Kappa Sigma's president contacted her in January looking for a service project. She was able to match individual refugee families with groups of four brothers who visited the Vietnamese newcomers in their homes and taught them English. The fraternity hopes to restart the adoption program this January.

"They showed a lot of concern for the families they were working with," Mrs. Donnelly said. "It gives us more contact with the families so we can provide them with better services."

One family the fraternity visited included a father who was seriously ill. He had been a political prisoner in Vietnam and the brothers wanted to be sure MRS was aware of his condition.

"They called to check up on us," Mrs. Donnelly smiled, adding that MRS knew of their client's health problems but were glad for the young people's input.

The MRS - Phi Kappa Sigma connection "has been such a success I've considered soliciting the help of other Tech fraternities and sororities since they're right around the corner," said Mrs. Donnelly, who works at the Catholic Center, not far from Tech's midtown Atlanta campus.

This spring, Phi Kappa Sigma hosted a picnic for their adopted families in Collier Park, collecting cans for recycling to pay for food and soda. At MRS's summer picnic, the brothers pitched in and played games with the children.

"The refugees always love Americans," said Mrs. Donnelly. "They respect teachers and they respect college students so it works out well."