BY COREY GIVENS JR., Contributor
ST. PETERSBURG — The Delta Omicron Sigma chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. held the winter 2019 Sigma Beta Club induction ceremony Friday, Feb. 1 at Academy Prep Center of St. Petersburg in front of an audience of 50 family, friends, Sigma Beta Club members and Sigma brothers.
The Delta Omicron Sigma chapter is the sponsoring chapter for the local Sigma Beta Club, a youth auxiliary of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity for males ages 8-18. The club’s motto is “Next Generation of Leaders Accepting the Responsibility and Loving the Challenge.”
Under the direction of Dr. Parlette L. Moore, the Sigma Beta Club was founded in 1950. Brother Moore, the 20th international president, was concerned about the changing needs in the black communities and recognized the important role that Sigma men could play in the lives of our youth.
Last Friday’s ceremony marks the fourth induction class into the Sigma Beta Club since it was re-chartered on Oct. 21, 2016. Dominic Brown, Wallay Brown, Walter Brown, Andino Ferguson Jr., Billie Henry III and Henry Wiggins are the newly inducted members.
The Sigma Beta Club’s four major principles of focus are on culture, athletics, social and educational needs. It offers a unique opportunity to develop values, leadership skills and social and cultural awareness in youth during their developmental years.
Programs are geared to meet the needs of its members, but at the same time provide them with a balanced outlook that is needed to cope with today’s society.
“As brothers, we are confident that investing in our youth today will produce the bold-effective leaders of tomorrow,” said Sigma Beta Club Program Director Greg Perkins.
Current Sigma Betas took on an active role in the program. Sigma Beta Club President Shawn Watts gave the keynote while Chaplin Jonah Starks gave the closing prayer.
Phi Beta Sigma members Darion Bentley, Dr. Cody Clark, Ernest Crumbley, Randall Chasten, Antwan Jackson, Christopher Lampley, Robert Clarke Sr., Joel Shedrick and Rev. Wallace Phaire II make up the Sigma Beta Club Advisory Committee.
For more information on the Sigma Beta Club please visit www.stpetesigmas.com/dos-sigma-beta-club.
About Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.
Founded at Howard University in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 9, 1914, the fraternity’s founders, Abram Langston Taylor, Leonard Frances Morse and Charles Ignatius Brown, wanted to organize a Greek letter fraternity that would exemplify the high ideals of brotherhood, scholarship and service while taking an inclusive perspective to serving the community as opposed to having an exclusive purpose.
The fraternity exceeded the prevailing models of Black Greek-Letter fraternal organizations by being the first to establish alumni chapters, youth mentoring clubs, a federal credit union, chapters in Africa and other parts of the world. Phi Beta Sigma is also the only fraternity to hold a constitutional bond with a predominantly African-American sorority, Zeta Phi Beta, which was founded on January 16, 1920, also at Howard University.
