Service honorary looking for the Best Best Friends

Ryan A. Mihalyi Arizona Daily Wildcat LEFT: Phi Lambda Phrateres members (from left) Karin Gick, Kevin Woon and Dawn Sapp are participating in the Best Best Friends Contest. The winners will be awarded a $100 shopping spree.

Phi Lambda Phrateres, a co-ed service fraternity, is honoring its pledge to foster friendliness by holding its first-ever Best Best Friend Contest.

A committee made up of members of the honorary is looking at criteria such as length of friendship, stories of commitment to the friendship, and other anecdotes.

Once the committee chooses the top 10 pairs of friends, a panel of celebrity judges will decide the contest winner.

The panel will include Betsy Bruce of KRQ 93.7 FM, Mindy Blake of KOLD Channel 13 and Kristen Lee of KGUN 9 television.

"There's no real easy way to determine the best best friends," said Kevin Woon, a business graduate student and coordinator of the contest, said.

Because it is difficult to measure the best best friends, the honorary attempted to find as many prizes as possible in order to give awards to the greatest number of people, Woon said.

He said that at least 15 pairs of friends will receive prizes.

The winning pair will win a $100 shopping spree at Circuit City.

In addition, all top entrants will receive a dinner for two at a local restaurant and will be invited to a banquet.

Phi Lambda Phrateres received $370 from the Associated Students for a congratulatory advertisement in the Arizona Daily Wildcat.

The office of Student Affairs and Campus Life also contributed $250 for the banquet.

The honorary will accept applications at a table in front of the Memorial Student Union Presidents' Lounge Tuesday through Thursday from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. Thursday is the deadline for applications.

Woon said that the honorary started the contest later than it would have preferred.

"Next year we're going to try and get the entire campus involved," he said.

"We're thinking of doing a book and binding all the letters next year. It's too late this year to do it."