Read Mallary’s testimony on how her University of Alabama ADPi sisterhood came together to honor, Emily Ray, a past chapter president after her tragic death.
On November 3rd, 2015 I was notified that an old friend, leader and loyal sorority sister had passed away in a car accident near her home the evening of November 2nd. I was in shock and disbelief that a beautiful person that I knew as someone that had a positive impact on so many of her friends and family was now gone. Emily Ray was a former president of Alpha Delta Pi at the University of Alabama. She was an active member from August 2003-2007 and president for 2006. She was the only child of two loving and supportive parents and made her fiance the happiest man on earth by saying yes to his proposal just a couple weeks before. She was also a successful business owner and active leader in her community.
Emily had everything going for her and the news of her passing affected the hearts of so many.
As a newly elected board member for Ronald McDonald House Houston, I reached out to the Alabama chapter. Many of her sisters, like me, wanted to celebrate her life and share her memories of being a great president for ADPi. We knew her as a devoted leader of our sorority that helped us spread awareness about this wonderful charity and help our chapter raise money for the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Alabama. I asked how we could help celebrate Emily and donate in her name. At the time, RMHC Alabama had just started a new fundraising website to make it easy for the public to raise money and share it on social media. This was perfect.
On the the same night, the RMHC Alabama team was able to help me set up an account and post it to my Facebook wall. I created a TEAM EMILY RAY for everyone to donate to one account and see the total rise as a team. The link went viral in a matter of minutes and sorority sisters from all over were able to come together as a team to celebrate Emily and help support a charity that meant so much to us all as a sorority.
In just ONE week we raised over $2,000! This is exactly what sisterhood is all about.
We couldn’t have raised this amount of money without the help of RMHC Alabama and their user-friendly fundraising website. Even a couple months later, I still see people commenting, liking the link on Facebook and donating. Still celebrating Emily and still giving back to those needing our help now.
