The Upsilon Ups

Summer Edition June 2013 www.illinois-pikapps.com Pi Kappa Phi, Upsilon Chapter, University of Illinois Est. 1921

PUSH AMERICA FUNDRAISER

Bowling

&

Brothers

Record attendance hoped for fifth Day at the Races

The Upsilon Alumni Chapters summer event is back for another year! Mark your calendars for Saturday, August 3, 2013 from Noon to 6 p.m. and plan to join us at Arlington Park for the Fifth Annual Day at the Races! Last year, nearly 30 brothers attended the event in Arlington Heights. Every year, Day at the Races features an afternoon of horse racing and brotherhood at the tracks semi-private Miller Lite Party Deck. Allyou-can-eat and drink is included in the ticket price and a personal betting attendant is available just for our group. This year, we hope to shatter our attendance record. If we can hit 40 attendees, the Miller Lite Party Deck becomes a completely private venue for the Upsilon Alumni Chapter. So bring your family, friends and other brothers to this marquee event! For more information or to purchase tickets, visit http://www.pkpuac.eventbrite.com n

Upsilon alumni Dan Shricks, Mike Demkovich, Jared Duke and Brian Durbin share stories over drinks during the Push Pins event on April 6 at Seven Ten Lounge in Chicago.

PRESIDENTS LETTER

In second year, Push Pins triples previous years fundraising total

As members of Pi Kappa Phi we are extremely fortunate to be tied to such a wonderful philanthropic organization such as Push America. That is why it was with such great pride the Upsilon Alumni Chapter hosted its second annual Push Pins charity bowling event with all proceeds going directly to Push America on Saturday, April 6. The event took place in Chicagos Lincoln Park neighborhood at Seven Ten Lounge, the same venue that hosted in 2012. The only difference was that this year instead of just renting out one room, Pi Kappa Phi took over the entire venue for an afternoon of brotherhood, bowling and charity. The alumni chapter saw a number of firsttime attendees to an alumni event, and we shattered the record for most attendees for an Upsilon alumni hosted event with 72 paid admissions! Alumni chapters biggest success, though, came from the generosity of our alumni, alumnis family, and friends. Last year, in our inaugural year, Upsilon Alumni Chapter was able to raise $1,250 for Push America. This year, in setting up the

Your support keeps alumni chapter strong

Fellow alumni brother, One of the most rewarding parts of being involved with the Alumni Chapter has been hearing from brothers who lost touch with Upsilon. Whether at happy hours in Chicago, at Homecoming in Champaign, or via e-mail notes, many of you have expressed appreciation for our efforts. Its equally rewarding to see events like Push Pins become major successes. With over 70 attendees and over $3500 raised for people with disabilities, this past Aprils fundraiser was easily our most successful event yet. Thats a testament to the hard work of our Chaplain, Kevin Spitz, and the continued strength of our brotherhood. Its also a great example of how your financial support grows, finding new ways to engage our alumni and keep the bonds of Upsilon strong. Thanks to our strong membership base and generous contributions from brothers like you, we had the capital to start our See Letter Page 4

event, we made the goal of raising $2,500 to send to Push America. In reality, after all the packages were purchased, raffle tickets bought and donations tallied, our chapter raised $3,750 for Push America. The Upsilon Alumni Chapter would like to once more thank all of its corporate donors. The generosity across Chicagoland was humbling. We would also like to thank Push America and Pi Kappa Phi headquarters for helping with coordination and advertising. Finally, a big thank you goes out to all those who attended Push Pins, donated to Push See Push Pins Page 4

Summer Edition June 2013 www.illinois-pikapps.com

Pi Kappa Phi, Upsilon Chapter, University of Illinois Est. 1921

Auto Focus
Andrew Krok turns childhood passion into fruitful career
If you went to college with Andrew Krok, Y1032, youd certainly remember his silver Honda Accord Coupe parked in our garage. And while the first thought that jumped in your head when seeing that car, now fondly referred to as Audrey, was not gearhead, Andrew has been a car guy since birth. Since graduating in 2008 with a degree in English, Andrew has married his passions for cars, writing and photography into a full-time job as Media Director for Fluid MotorUnion, a Plainfield, Ill., based service and repair facility for luxury European vehicles. In his position, Andrew has helped build Fluid MotorUnion into the most liked independent automotive service and repair facility on Facebook. Andrew also freelances for Total 911 The Porsche Magazine. We recently sat down with Andrew to find out more about what he does:

ALUMNUS SPOTLIGHT: ANDREW KROK

Above, Upsilon Alumnus Andrew Krok (Y1032) takes a self portrait through the side-view mirror on one of his subjects. At left, several of his recent photos.

Andrew: Truthfully, I get the most satisfaction from watching my work head out onto the wide world of the internet and seeing how its received. Im a writer first and foremost, so if I catch wind that somebodys liked my writing/photography enough to come into our shop and get work done, or if it helped them reinforce their career path, it makes me realize that I am truly on the right career path. Other than that, I love being around cars, as Ive been a car guy since birth. Being on the other side of the curtain, so to speak, is a real treat for a guy like me, whos into the sheer amount of engineering porn thats going on here.

Q
The blog for our Performance side is a daily dose of the inner workings of our fabrication shop, which is a side rarely seen in this industry. Basically, I comprise the days work into a 500-word blog post, complete with DSLR pictures that I shoot and edit. I then take that blog post and those pictures and disseminate them through various social media channels, including several automotive online forums that we frequent.

Whats your favorite project you worked on?

What do you do on a daily basis as Media Director?

Andrew: Fluid MotorUnion (FMU) specializes in both service and aftermarket performance for luxury European vehicles (Aston Martin, Audi, Bentley, BMW, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Mercedes, etc.), and the performance half of our business includes an on-site fabrication shop where we handcraft performance parts from stainless steel, aluminum and titanium. The majority of my job consists of taking FMUs daily goings on and relating them to our audience.

What do you like most about your job?

Andrew: My favorite part of this job usually entails attending and shooting/ covering large-scale car meets. My favorite trip of them all was probably the trek out west to MFest 2011, which is the west coasts largest gathering of BMW fans, owners and performance shops. Twelve of us drove three cars all the way to Las Vegas and back without stopping, and it was complete with mechanical maladies and pretty much everything youd expect on a road trip with expensive, high-maintenance cars. The show has a hookup with the Palazzo, so we stayed in a suite for the entirety of the See Andrew Krok Page 4

Summer Edition June 2013 www.illinois-pikapps.com

Pi Kappa Phi, Upsilon Chapter, University of Illinois Est. 1921

Upsilon outreach
Philanthropy, volunteerism remain central to chapters mission
Upsilon has seen great fortune this year as we continue to strive to redefine fraternity at the University of Illinois. Over the last year we recruited 26 future leaders on campus, initiating 19 in the fall and 7 more in the spring, ending the year with 85 members. In an effort to take our chapter to the next level, we worked to improve every area of our chapter with special emphasis on service, philanthropy, and alumni relations. In the second semester of this year, Upsilon took a huge step forward with regards to our service by being trusted to run our own programming through Champaign Urbana Special Recreation, being tasked to design events and provide all of the volunteers with limited oversight. We also worked to improve our philanthropy, raising over $6,000 for PUSH America in our annual Camp Out on the Quad, over $1,000 with War of the Roses, our new spring philanthropy event, $3,500 from the alumni Push Pins bowling event, and an additional $1,170 by current Chaplain, Brother Ben Feicht. While the final total is not yet in, we have raised over $10,000 for PUSH America this year, beating our previous best by a wide margin and averaging far over our goal of $100 per man. In an effort to keep our alumni network closely in touch with our chapter we organized several calla-thons, reaching out to alumni to learn more about them and where life has taken them. We have also updated our website and facebook page, trying our best to make our accomplishments as public as possible. If you have not already, please visit and like our facebook page where we often post status updates and pictures of chapter events. As we approach the upcoming year, we have many goals. In addi-

ARCHONS REPORT

THIS FALL

Homecoming: October 26
This years homecoming event is just around the corner. October 26, 2013 marks the 130th Homecoming at the University of Illinois. We hope you can make the trip to Champaign for a fun weekend full of barbecues, Pi Kapps, and of course Illini football! The Illini will be taking on the Michigan State Spartans. As in previous years, tailgating and barbecuing will take place at the Chapter house (306 E. Gregory Drive) before and after the football game. Those not attending the game are welcome to watch in the Chapter room. If you plan to stay Friday night or Saturday night and need a hotel, dont forget to book early. If you have questions about Homecoming, please contact Alumni Chapter President Gene Giannotta at gwgiannotta@gmail.com.

Eight undergrads attended Push Camp (above); an empathy dinner (right).

tion to upholding the standards we have set for ourselves this year with regards to service and philanthropy, we plan to place special emphasis on recruitment and member education. We plan to come into the year more prepared than ever and recruiting what we hope will be the biggest and best class to date. We hope to have a improved member education curriculum which emphasizes the lifelong brotherhood of Pi Kappa Phi while teaching new members to take accountability for the chapter. I believe that with continued effort from our undergraduate members as well as support from all of our alumni, Upsilon can continue to prosper. Alumni support and help is always appreciated and we encourage you to reach out to us if you wish to become more involved. I hope to see you all at homecoming this year, October 26th, and continue to celebrate our lifelong brotherhood. Thanks always for your help and support and I am proud to call you all my brothers! In Pi Kappa Phi, Chris Mulreed (Y1146)

CONTACT INFORMATION
President Gene Giannotta (630) 329-7516 gwgiannotta@gmail.com Vice President Sky Opila (708) 227-1884 sky.opila@gmail.com Treasurer Tommy Carrato (847) 722-8232 tcarrato@gmail.com Secretary Dan Schriks (708) 846-4519 schriks2@gmail.com Chaplain Kevin Spitz (847) 989-5463 kspitz2@gmail.com Housing Corp. President James Nelson (630) 334-0177 james.nelson.ii@gmail.com

Welcomed 26 new members into our Fraternity Raised over $10,000 for Push America Won the intramural championship in soccer Champaign-Urbana Special Recreation has given Upsilon the ability to run their own volunteer programs and events Logged over 1100 hours of volunteering Eight members of Upsilon spent their Spring Break at a Push Camp in Missouri

Summer Edition June 2013 www.illinois-pikapps.com Hello from Brother Jim Bayne (Y367). Jim tells us he recently published his first book in a series about the Revolutionary War titled The Storm Breaks and he is now writing regular columns in the Culpeper Star-Exponent, the hometown newspaper of Culpeper, Va. After retiring from NASA, Jim continues to farm in Virginia. It is with heavy heart that we share news of Jims wife, Melba, who passed in October 2010. Melba was very close to the Upsilon Chapter and was the Rose of Pi Kappa Phi in the late 1950s. The Upsilon Chapter mourns the passing of Brother Wendell Hayes Schanz (Y536). Brother Schanz passed on April 4, 2013. He was born on January 1, 1945 and was initiated into Pi Kappa Phi on May 7, 1965. He was a resident of Cape Coral, Florida. Gunnar Schalin (Y537) concluded his term as national president of the Association of Procurement Technical

Pi Kappa Phi, Upsilon Chapter, University of Illinois Est. 1921 he will serve as a staff writer. Andrew is still based in the Chicagoland area. Congratulations to Brad Kaye (Y1036) and his wife Toni. The couple was married in Chicago on June 8, 2013. Alex Stezskal (Y1055) and his wife Christle were married on New Years Eve. Christle was Rose of Pi Kappa Phi during college. Congratulations to the newlyweds! Congratulations to Jeff McMahon (Y974) and his wife Katie on the birth of their daughter, Regan Marie. Regan was born on May 12, 2013. An extremely belated congrats to Mike Reedy (Y868) and his wife Nicole on the birth of their son, Luke. Luke was born on May 24, 2011 and while we certainly missed his birth announcement, we wish him a very happy 2nd birthday! Have an update youd like to share? E-mail it to Sky Opila at sky.opila@gmail.com

Assistance Centers (APTAC) in April of this year. A reception for Brother Schalin was held in Atlanta, Georgia conveniently the same city as the first Supreme Chapter he attended in the late 1960s. Mark Peluse (Y997) and his wife Beth were married this past November. Good friend and fellow brother, James Nelson Y1002, stood up as Brother Peluses best man. Congratulations! Eric Chen (Y1008) accepted a position with Amazon and is now living in Seattle. Nick Stoczanyn (Y1011) accepted a position with Northern Trust Hedge Fund Services in November 2012. Nick is still based in the Chicagoland area. Gene Giannotta (Y1030) recently moved to Washington, D.C. to volunteer with Organizing for Action while he pursues new career opportunities. Andrew Krok (Y1032) accepted a new position with Web2Carz.com where

Letter

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Brothers Patrick Stille, Tommy Carrato and Pat Schuster posed as they made their approach to the lanes during the Push Pins event.

Push Pins

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Pins, helped find donations for Push Pins, and helped plan and run Push Pins. It is only with all these pieces put together that the 2nd annual Push Pins charity bowling event was such a success. With such success and the positive feedback that the Upsilon Alumni chapter board has received, we have already booked Seven Ten Lounge for Saturday, April 5, 2014 from 2:30-6 PM.

For those who werent able to join us this year, consider putting the date on the calendar and joining us next year. For those of you who made it this year, we look forward to seeing you next April! If you would like more information on Push Pins, how to get involved with helping for next years event, or having any comments of any kind about Push Pins charity bowling, please email Kevin Spitz at kspitz2@gmail.com n

Andrew Krok

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What do you hope to be doing in the future?

three-day stay. It was a ton of fun, I took a ton of pictures and ended up with a pretty gnarly tan.

What cool projects do you have coming up?

Andrew: I have a cool freelancing project coming up! Porsche has commissioned a book to be written about the 50th anniversary of the Porsche 911, and I will likely be penning a story for it.

Andrew: Ideally, within the next five years Id like to be a full-time staffer for a major automotive blog (e.g. Jalopnik, Autoblog) that focuses more on OEM products rather than modified vehicles. From there, my ten-year plan is to end up as a staff writer on the masthead of a well-established automotive print magazine (e.g. Car & Driver, Automobile, Road & Track). It combines my greatest passion -- cars -- with my one and only marketable skill -- writing. n

bowling event last year and expand it this year. That support also means we can continue to publish our award-winning newsletter, offering you a chance to stay connected with your chapter. It also means we have the flexibility to come up with new ways to do that better. For example, our expanded section on life updates was a great success last issue, allowing our readers to see what brothers are up to all over the world. Now that I no longer live in the Chicago area myself, I dont get to enjoy some of the perks of membership firsthand. But its no less rewarding to count myself as a member, contributing whatever I can to ensure that the bonds forged at the University of Illinois remain as strong as they can be. Whether by becoming a member, offering an additional contribution, or volunteering your time, know that you can help ensure that we continue to do everything we can to keep our brotherhood connected. Its up to all of us to ensure the foundation weve set for Upsilon over the past decade remains strong for many more to come. Even with a small contribution, you can make a big difference as we move forward with the next phase of our alumni relations program. Strong alumni support means that our undergraduate chapter can continue to point to the lasting benefits of being part of Upsilon. And it means that many, many more men will be able to be a part of the brotherhood that has made such a difference in our lives. Fraternally, Gene Giannotta (Y1030)