The names of members of Sigma Chi, a social fraternity on campus, are now on display in St. Paul City Hall after the chapter received the Neighborhood Honor Roll award last January in recognition of its community service.

“We’re a small chapter, and we don’t get a lot of recognition through the university, like publicity; no one really knows about us. The city hall thing was huge,” said Tony Martin, senior and the executive director of Sigma Chi.

The fraternity, which has been active on campus for 26 years, accumulates an average of 350 service hours each semester. Its work in the community prompted Ed Martell, the DFL precinct chair for the neighborhood surrounding the university, to nominate them.

“They have everything a university would want,” Martell said. “The university should be extremely proud of how they contribute.”

Regular community service projects are what sets the fraternity apart, according to Martell and Amy Gage, the neighborhood liaison at St. Thomas. The fraternity puts on projects like the Shovel Brigade — a weekly winter event during which fraternity members help clear snow from the driveways and sidewalks of campus neighbors — and Sunday Morning Pick-Me Up, a bi-weekly event meant to clean up the community. Gage also thinks the students in the fraternity represent the school well.

“At least twice (Sigma Chi) has been responsible enough to let me know they were going to have a party,” Gage said. “They do it right. I think the guys that are there represent the best of our students.”

This award isn’t the first for Sigma Chi. Last spring, the fraternity was given the Community Engagement Award by the university in recognition of its service work involving the Shovel Brigade and Sunday Morning Pick-Me Up.

But the group doesn’t do it for the awards.

“When we go out on these Sunday Morning Pick-Me Ups, we’re often embraced by residents, and it’s amazing to see these people smile; they’re just so happy,” said Bobby Martin, sophomore and Sigma Chi’s technology and campus relations chair. “They go out, and they see their neighborhood, their lawn and everything trashed by people who go out partying and leave trash behind. It’s really unfair to them because they don’t deserve that.”

Through projects such as Sunday Morning Pick-Me Up, Sigma Chi has helped to reduce the amount of trash found in the neighborhood over time as well.

“Each time we do it, there’s less to clean up,” Martell said.

Meghan Meints can be emailed at mein9517@stthomas.edu.