Phi Delta Theta brother and Turtle Derby Co-Chair Corey Hendrickson-Rose doesn’t know how the turtle racing tradition began at his fraternity’s University of Idaho chapter back in 1957, but he said the philanthropic spirit behind it is something that drives the fraternity to continue to host the derby each year.
In fact, Saturday’s derby is only the culmination of the Phi Delta Theta philanthropy week. Throughout the week, the fraternity will raise money for the LiveLike Lou Foundation, an organization that works to support ALS patients, their families and research efforts for a cure.
“Saturday is the main event,” Hendrickson-Rose said. The turtles were distributed to the competing sorority houses on Wednesday night, and each sorority has until Saturday to get to know their turtle and perfect a skit to introduce their competitor. “They can also decorate their turtles,” Hendrickson-Rose said.
However, he said the turtles are treated with care and not harmed in the process.
“We don’t want (the sororities) to paint them or put tape on them because that’s bad for them, but anything they can think of that’s not bad for the turtles, they can decorate them,” Hendrickson-Rose said.
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The competing sororities will then race their turtles at the Phi Delta Theta house on Elm street at 1 p.m.
“The way it works is we just race sorority after sorority kind of in a little bracket,” Hendrickson-Rose said.
The race track, known as the “ooh-paw-paw-dow” consists of two concentric circles. To win, a turtle has to be the first to wander out of the inner ring.
It’s a competition that Phi Delta Theta member Cody Gronning said leaves the winner entirely up to fate.
“There’s really no strategy, no skill behind it,” Gronning said. “It’s just kind of luck.”
For Gronning, the philanthropy is one he said he feels personally invested in after attending a Phi Delta Theta leadership conference last year and hearing a presentation from LiveLikeLou Director Suzanne Alexander.
“That speech she gave was really moving, it really just made me motivated,” Gronning said. “It made me wish that I was a Turtle Derby Chair because I know that I would have done everything I could just to make this event as good as possible.”
The Live Like Lou Foundation’s namesake, Lou Gehrig, was a Phi Delta Theta brother in the 1930s, and the organization’s founder, Neil Alexander, was initiated as a member of the fraternity in 2012. In 2017, the foundation announced it had been adopted as the main philanthropic cause for all Phi Delta Theta chapters nationwide.
“We get a lot of support,” Hendrickson-Rose said. “Also, the fact that it’s on Moms’ Weekend really helps bump up the number of people that are involved. We try to really involve the parents.”
The derby is free and open to the public, with food for sale and baskets prepared by the competing sororities up for auction. The auction is the main source of revenue for the philanthropic event.
“It’s just a bidding on baskets,” Hendrickson-Rose said. “We can’t do betting on the turtles in the races, so instead we have all the sororities bring in baskets and we kind of just open up an auction on the baskets throughout the day.”
The auction baskets will be distributed to the winners by a Phi Delta Theta brother dressed up as “Theodis” the turtle, according to Hendrickson-Rose.
While he describes the event as “really kind of weird,” Gronning still said it’s fun to watch.
“(The) public is definitely welcome to come,” Gronning said. “You don’t have to donate, you can still just come and see everything.”
Beth Hoots can be reached at [email protected]