ASU sorority sisters appear on "Ellen" show
Alpha Chi Omega members received $10,000 to donate to A New Leaf
From selfies at a baseball game to selfies on "Ellen," the women of Arizona State University's Alpha Chi Omega sorority have had an interesting couple of weeks.
The women who were mocked last week for taking selfies at an Arizona Diamondbacks game appeared on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" Friday in a segment that ended with Shutterfly donating $10,000 to the sorority’s national philanthropy.
The women drew national attention last week when Fox Sports Arizona commentators spent two minutes talking about them taking selfies with hot dogs and churros during a game. The video went viral, with many making negative comments about the women.
Since then, Fox Sports Arizona and the Diamondbacks offered the sorority free tickets to another game, but the members declined and asked that the team provide the tickets to A New Leaf, an organization that supports victims of domestic violence.
"It's been amazing, and I'm so impressed with these young women," said Joe Dulin, philanthropy officer for A New Leaf. "They took an opportunity that started out fairly negative, turned it around and shined a light on a charity."
On Friday's show, DeGeneres introduced the women by showing the infamous clip on the big screen, and quipped: "That’s the same thing I do when Portia makes me go to the opera.”
She said she built special seating to make the women feel at home on the set. A curtain rose to reveal the group of squealing and giggling young women in two rows of stadium seats.
"Everybody else has a no-cellphone rule, but you can do whatever you want, all right?" DeGeneres joked.
Later the women joined DeGeneres on stage for a chat, and one sorority member explained that they were at the game for a "sisterhood" bonding experience. Degeneres said she thought the video was funny, but that it received many negative comments.
"Someone said we have a combined IQ of a burnt tater tot," one sorority member said.
Another commented: "It’s funny because we are all on dean’s list and half of us are on academic scholarships."
The women spoke about raising domestic-violence awareness, which is Alpha Chi Omega's national philanthropy, and how the incident has led to more donations to A New Leaf.
"You can never predict when something goes viral, and when it does, you hope people take advantage of it and steer it in the right direction," Dulin said. "These young ladies ... are smart, charming and a delight to watch. They bring the same kind of energy to the organization and the families they are serving."
DeGeneres surprised the women with selfie sticks, squeezing among them on the couch to snap a photo, resulting in more squeals. Then, she surprised them with a check for $10,000 from Shutterfly for their cause.
Their reaction? A chorus of excited squeals.
A New Leaf: http://turnanewleaf.org