Sigma Chi member Cullen Blanchfield ’21 reflects back on his fraternity’s effort to help their house chef when he needed it most.
I joined Sigma Chi in the Spring of 2018, and while change has been a constant during the last three years for all of us at the Sigma Chi house, one thing has remained consistent and that is Claudis, our House Chef, who feeds us three meals a day.
Claudis has worked for the Delta Mu Chapter of Sigma Chi for 18 years, without a single complaint. Each weekday, Claudis arrives at Sigma Chi at 6 AM sharp, cooks all day, and leaves shortly after 6:30 PM every day except Friday when he leaves us at 2 PM.
Although he is a man of few words, Claudis is a man of his word. Day in and day out, Claudis works diligently to serve others. On a few occasions I’ve had short conversations with Claudis while getting my food, and I’ve learned that Claudis is a die-hard Seahawks fan, a father, and a husband. Additionally, my Sigma Chi brothers and I learned that Claudis’ wife had been battling cancer over the last few years. Not only has Claudis cooked for 100 + young men every weekday for years, up until this past fall he would return home and cook for his wife who had a limited diet because of her battle with cancer.
When the COVID pandemic hit, a few of us noticed that Claudis began to serve our food. Not only was he cooking all of our meals, but he was serving all of us, unable to relax after preparing our meal. This didn’t sit well with anyone in our chapter, so we looked into providing Claudis with a raise or bonus for his extra work.
Just like any other morning, Claudis arrived at the house on time on October 6th. Our house Mom, Pam, informed us that Claudis had lost his wife to cancer. Pam had to tell Claudis to take the week off, showing just how committed he is. My fraternity brothers proposed the idea to pool together money to help pay for the funeral. I suggested that we use GoFundMe as a platform to allow the Sigma Chi brothers to show their appreciation for the man who has shown up every single day to cook for us regardless of the challenges life has presented him. Our GoFundMe raised $5775, surpassing our goal of $2500 more than two-fold. We received donations from current brothers, recent alumni, alumni from decades ago, some of whom don’t even know Claudis personally. It felt incredibly special to give back just a fraction of what Claudis has given to us. All of us at Sigma Chi consider it a true honor to have Claudis as a part of our Sigma Chi family. We look forward to many more years of his quiet presence and big heart in our house.
To donate to Sigma Chi’s GoFundMe for Claudis, please click here.
Cullen Blanchfield ’21 is a BFA Film Production Major. He is from New Hartford, New York and his Residential Commons affiliation is Armstrong Commons.