As a social service organization, Royal Lady Knights (pictured above) is a unique local Geneseo sorority that emphasizes philanthropy. They offer a warm, welcoming environment for their members and encourage originality and acceptance (Courtesy of Kerry Moore).
The Royal Lady Knights is a local Geneseo sorority, founded in 1989, that encourages both inclusivity and social service work. Collectively, there are about 100 members who are affiliated with the organization.
RLK consists of members who have varied interests, whether in their different clubs on campus or in terms of majors and minors. Despite any differences, RLK encourages a welcoming environment, allowing its members to be themselves.
Senior secretary of RLK Aileen Mack acknowledges the flexibility of the sorority as well as its comfortable environment.
“RLK’s motto is ‘Come as you are’ and we really believe that. We encourage all of our members to be themselves and to pursue their own interests,” Mack said. “RLK is really great for people who are involved in many activities because you get to decide how involved you want to be … You can really do what you want and be yourself while still being a part of RLK.”
Each sorority member is required to meet a basic service requirement every semester. Senior treasurer of RLK Kerry Moore enjoys the service aspect.
“RLK is a social service organization. It’s probably split 50/50 with doing social, going out, hanging out with each other, and then we also [do] 50 percent service,” Moore said. “We do 15 hours a semester, which is required, which is definitely on the higher side, and so many girls go above and beyond that just because it’s normally a good time because you hang out with your friends.”
RLK also has a Service Board of members who reach out to organizers from local charities so that the sorority members can sign up for events at their convenience.
“There are about four Service Chairs and they get in touch with the organizers of the charities and then put them up to RLK,” Mack said. “Then RLKs sign up to go, and we have to have a minimum of 15 hours of service a semester.”
Aside from the required service hours, members often attend charity events together and fundraise through service events at the college.
“In the fall, our charity event was the Breast Cancer Walk, and that’s where all of RLK goes over to Rochester, we all carpool and we participate in the Breast Cancer Walk that they have there,” Mack said. “And in the spring, our mandatory service event is Relay for Life. We fundraise for that all spring. We have different kinds of fundraisers. We do service events with Morgan Estates, Bethany House [and] Foodlink.”
With the high level of member-involvement in the organization, there is plenty of potential to improve and to become even more inclusive while still following the sorority’s main message.
“I definitely see the future of RLK as continuing the message that RLK has always had...and I think as we move forward that’s [going to mean] making RLK as inclusive to everyone as possible. And also, we recently added the Sustainability Chair to RLK, which is focusing on making RLK as sustainable as possible in the sense of environmental causes,” Mack said.
RLK is an organization that provides a welcoming environment to its members and encourages positivity, community support and involvement.