Cornell’s Greek community converged to “outwit, outplay and outlast” each other in the annual Greek Week, which began Wednesday and ended on Saturday.

The theme this year was “Greek Week: Survivor,” and events included a carnival, various team challenges and a canned food drive.

Thursday’s carnival on Ho Plaza offered inflatable basketball, free popcorn and cotton candy and ladderball, among other entertainment, to members of the Cornell community.

A canned food drive was held throughout the carnival in conjunction with United Way. Over 3,500 cans were collected, according to Jessica Powers ’11, vice president of programming for the Panhellenic Council.

On Friday, eleven mixed “tribes” competed in various team challenges such as volleyball, four-square, flag football and hoola-hooping. These “tribes” were composed of members from all three Greek councils – the Interfraternity Council, the Multicultural Greek Letter Council and the Panhellenic Council. The winning chapters included Delta Delta Delta, Alpha Zeta, Delta Chi, Phi Kappa Tau, Tau Kappa Epsilon and Lambda Theta Phi.

Jarrod Cruz, assistant dean of students with the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs explained the objectives of Greek Week.

“The purpose of Greek Week is to unite Cornell University’s Greek community through various fun and challenging events,” Cruz wrote in an e-mail. “Greek Week was very successful this year and continues to promote the fraternal spirit.”

Additionally, the week’s activities were meant to introduce Greek life to the incoming freshmen.

“The week provides an opportunity for all members of the Greek community to introduce the incoming class to the concept of Greek life,” explained Powers in an e-mail. “Overall, the week was a huge success!”