Tri Sigma Blog The official blog of Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority

Our next story from the Labyrinth Leadership Experience comes from Cammie Coker, Epsilon Zeta – Southern Arkansas. Cammie explains the “Hope Challenge”, a concept introduced to the group and the adventure that followed.

The chance to be a part of the Labyrinth Leadership inaugural class was unbelievable. I was chosen along with 19 other women to spend five days reflecting on our core values of wisdom, power, faith, hope, and love. When we each arrived in D.C. none of us knew what to expect, the whole experience was going to be a big surprise. We spent the days digging deeper and having great conversations about our values. 

The value that truly made an impact on me during this experience was Hope. We all were divided up into groups, given $50 and told to go find hope in Washington, D.C. The group that I was a part of decided to pay it forward. We sealed two envelopes with money inside and on the back of them we wrote, “We are on a mission to bring hope to others! If you need the money inside take it, if not add some money and pass it on. We hope that your decision brings hope to yourself and others.” We also included our twitter handles and went looking for whom to give it to! My partner, Nicole Soto and I decided to give ours to a group of Girl Scouts we saw walking on the street. We explained what we were doing and left them with the money to decide. 

My whole group at first doubted the success of our challenge. Ultimately we had no clue what would happen, but that was the pure hope in this challenge. We used every value that Tri Sigma women believe in during this one day. We had to have faith in the people we passed our money to that they would do the right thing.

We gave wisdom and power to each person the envelope comes in contact with, whether that is one person or hundreds. Lastly we as a group had so much hope and love in this single act of kindness. We received so far one tweet that the envelope was passed on! I believe that if it’s the last I hear out of #HopeChallenge than it was still a success because my group made a difference in at least one person’s life that day.

I am so honored to be a member of the 2012 Labyrinth Leadership class. Thank you to the Tri Sigma Foundation for giving me the opportunity to find hope in myself and others. This experience has forever changed my life and it would not be possible without the Foundation and all of the donors. Once again thank you! This is not the end of the road for me. My journey is not over, it has just begun!