The Phi Sigma Sigma sorority will host its annual Amazing Race philanthropy event this weekend to support My Sister’s Place, a local shelter for battered women and children.

“I think that it is great that we can help out women in need of such a support system by working together as a sisterhood,” Phi Sigma Sigma President Brooke Rowland said. “It is important to us that by learning to serve others we become more valuable to our community.”

The Amazing Race is a three-day event that features speakers and fundraising events to raise money to support the shelter. This evening the sorority will host a two-person panel of University Counseling Center representatives who will discuss the effects of and ways to prevent abuse.

My Sister’s Place is Phi Sigma Sigma’s local philanthropy, an organization that serves battered women and children in the D.C. area.

“It’s definitely a cause that’s important, and we try to get involved with them as much as possible,” said Hope Ditto, Phi Sigma Sigma special events chair.

In the past, Phi Sigma Sigma sorority members were able to volunteer at the shelter as a group, but the shelter has since changed its policies for group volunteer opportunities. Some members and alumni of the sorority still volunteer and work at the shelter on an individual basis.

On Friday and Saturday, the group will host penny wars in University Yard, a “famous couples in history” themed social at Hawk and Dove and a “hidden extravaganza” around campus where 11 fraternities and more than 150 people will participate in the mock Amazing Race event.