by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Not every Greek fellowship is a beer guzzling college fraternity or uppity sorority. Case in point: the Chi Alpha’s from Birmingham, Ala.
The 155-member group and many of their parents spent last week in Jacksonville visiting public high schools and churches all over the city. They sang, they played their own music and, most importantly, spent much of their time speaking to and with their Jacksonville peers about living life down the straight and narrow.
“We talk a lot about character development and other things like that because we can’t talk about God in the schools,” said Bill Decker, one of many parents who chaperoned the trip. “We also had three evangelical rallies at churches. It was a great week for us.”
Chi Alpha is a group of students from 15 high schools in Birmingham that all attend Hunter Street Baptist Church. They culminated their week-long tour of Jacksonville —dubbed “Live Out Loud” — with a performance at the Landing Friday afternoon.
Since its inception 10 years ago, Chi Alpha has grown from 17 members to 155, getting 30-40 new members every year. Jacksonville, Decker said, was a semi-random selection that worked out better than anyone could have imagined. With the exception of Tuesday afternoon’s monsoon, the weather was Chamber of Commerce perfect. But, the elements are only a minor reason the group plans to return to Jacksonville in the future.
“It’s been wonderful,” said Decker. “We had a great time, the people are really friendly, the schools were incredible and the churches were wonderful. This [the Landing] venue today is great. We’ve been to cities like Chicago, St. Louis and Atlanta and Jacksonville is probably at the top of our list now.”
A local resident actually had a lot to do with bringing Chi Alpha to Jacksonville. Although the church picks up half the tab for the trip and the kids/parents handle the other half, the group still needs a local connection.
“We go to each city by invitation,” explained Chi Alpha director Jeff Askew. “Greg Rowe was our sponsor here. He’s a former staff member at Hunter Street Baptist Church and he teaches at Crossroads Christian School [in Mandarin].”
Askew agreed with Decker’s assessment of the city and said a return trip was certainly in the plans.
“We don’t know where we are going next year, but in 2004 we are going to Germany,” said Askew, who has run the program for the last seven years. “Based on how well were received here, we’ll be back. Maybe every three or four years.”
During the week, the group went to Paxon and Englewood high schools, several other schools and the beach at Hanna Park.
For the 22 senior members of Chi Alpha, however, Friday night may have been the highlight of the trip.
“Every year on the last night we take our seniors out,” said Askew. “We don’t tell them where we are going and we swear them to secrecy. They won’t ever tell anyone else what we do tonight.”