PBM and SISTUHS team up to celebrate Founder’s Week

Members of both SISTUHS and Progressive Black Men at the set promoting their organization.
Photo credit: Sydne Vigille

Having founder’s day nearly a week in separation, Progressive Black Men, Inc. (PBM) and SISTUHS, Inc. at Florida A&M University (FAMU) collaborated to have a service week to celebrate.

PBM, Inc. was founded on Nov. 27, 1989. Three years after, SISTUHS, Inc. was founded on Dec. 3, 1992. From that point forward a sibling bond was formed between the two organizations.

Haleem Brown, who is the president of the PBM, Inc. at FAMU said the brother-sister relationship between the two organizations is evident.  

“It’s been a great relationship. It’s really a brother-sister type of feel among us,” Brown said.

Since the PBM, Inc. and SISTUHS, Inc. have founder’s day that are a week in separation, a mutual decision was made to collaborate and host a week of events from Monday, Nov. 27 to Sunday, Dec. 1 for FAMU’s student body.

Breakfast starters on the quad kicked off the week on Monday. Students were able to pick up a quick, healthy bite as they journeyed to their morning classes, followed by learning about mental health later that evening in a mental health informational. 

Breanna Evans-Taylor, who is the president of SISTUHS at FAMU said that the mental health informational was designed to be an open environment where students could feel comfortable.

“Mental Health Monday was an open environment, and it was one where, you know, you didn’t really have to second guess yourself,” Evans-Taylor said. “If you were going to say something, you would feel open enough to say ‘I do have anxiety’ and not have anyone judge you.”

Game night with the Beta Nu chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. proved to be nothing short of a success as students piled into the Rattlers Den by the numbers. There were a variety of games to choose from including Uno and Twister.  

Raena Patterson, who is a member of SISTUHS said that the turnout of the game night with the Alphas was a surprise to her. “It really really caught me off guard. There was at least fifty to sixty people at the game night,” Patterson said.  

Patterson added that along with preparation, many factors are considered to ensure the prosperity of the special week.

“What’s your audience, what do you want to achieve at the event, trying not to make the event too typical, you know, stuff that people are too tired of going to all comes into play,” Patterson said. “It was not easy at all.”

Having many factors taken into consideration means that event planning must take place months in advance and there is little to no room for rushed work. “We really just sat down and said, ‘Hey we gotta get this stuff done,’ so that we could have a successful week,” Brown said.  

Members of both organizations were amazed by the turnout of the events. It is safe to say that expectations were broken.  

“The events have gone better than I thought they would,” Brown said. “It kind of took me by surprise quite honestly.”

Hosting the activities for this week goes beyond celebrating founder’s day. Each organization made it clear that they wanted to do something nice for the student body while also bringing awareness to PBM, Inc. and SISTUHS, Inc.  

“That’s always the most important thing to me – that we always stay true to our mission,” Evans-Taylor said. “We’re here to do community service, so we always should do service.”