Few students take annual cruise in California

For Oregon State University's Greek houses, Mother's Day weekend traditionally has meant plenty of fun and sun - and beer and booze - on Lake Shasta in Northern California.

Not anymore.

Local fraternities and sororities have largely abandoned the annual rite of party passage in the wake of a 2005 death. That year, Delta Gamma member Gina Zalunardo, 23, committed suicide.

"Mother's Day weekend used to be a big weekend," said Deputy Gary Van Dyne, with the boating safety unit of the Shasta County Sheriff's Office.

On Thursday, however, there were just five houseboats on the lake with college students from Corvallis.

Just a few years ago, 40 or 50 houseboats, most of them filled with OSU students, would chug around on the water or tie up on shore. Nearly all fraternities would show, with hundreds of members and their dates skipping class on Thursday and Friday.

"It was huge. Huge. Every chapter had five or six boats. They got T-shirts printed for Shasta," said Ron Thiesen, who ran Campus Connection, a business that sold sweatshirts and other goods to the Greek community for nearly 25 years before closing in 2007. "It was going well before we opened up the store."

"Basically, it was hyped up a month before as a good way to blow off steam," said Trevor Giroux, president of the OSU Interfraternity Council. Three years ago, as a freshman, he went to Shasta with Chi Phi.

Lake Shasta, in general, has dropped off the radar during the last five years as a college party locale, Van Dyne said. From 2003-2005, there were anywhere from 160 to 220 student-occupied houseboats, each with about 25 people. This year, he expects 120 to 140 houseboats.

Why the drop in numbers?

"Maybe the gas, the expense, the driving - it's getting more expensive," Van Dyne said. Renting the houseboats was never inexpensive to begin with, and students often would get charged deposits for repairs.

But education also could play a role. It certainly has at OSU, where Greek leaders openly advocated against Shasta after Zalunardo's death, said Alison Tanaka, a Delta Gamma member and president of the Panhellenic Council, which all sororities belong to.

"It scares me a lot this weekend. I saw how it affected the girls who were here," said Tanaka, who joined Delta Gamma in fall 2005. "Gina meant a lot for them."

"When you really think about it, it's a terrible idea to involve booze and water. Unfortunately, it took a tragedy to make people realize how real the danger was," Giroux said.

Chi Phi no longer travels south for the party, and Giroux said 90 percent of local fraternities have a national policy of avoiding Shasta weekends.

"None of our members are going. I've been advised by our headquarters to not have people go. It's something we really caution against," said Brent Wehage, house manager of Phi Gamma Delta, known as Fiji.

Zalunardo, who had a blood-alcohol content of 0.14 percent, wasn't the first tragedy at Shasta for OSU. In 2001, Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity member Sean Matsuda, 19, drowned when he slipped and fell from a houseboat.

In 1992, 19-year-old Stacy Epping was swimming when a houseboat backed over her. She was caught in the propellers and her left leg had to be amputated.

In 2005, a University of Oregon student also drowned at Lake Shasta during Memorial Day weekend.

Sigma Phi Epsilon stopped going to Shasta the year after Matsuda's death. "It was just a generally irresponsible thing for our house to be participating in," said Nick Eglitis, Sigma Phi Epsilon president. "I know it's still big for a lot of people."

Kevin Kelley, operations manager for Holiday Harbor, which rents houseboats on Lake Shasta, said some OSU students have switched to Memorial Day weekend instead of Mother's Day. The switch usually provides better weather, as well as an extra day to party.

Students from California universities in Chico, Davis and Sacramento flock to Shasta at that time.

Giroux said he'd be one of the few OSU students at Shasta this weekend. But he was going on a houseboat rented by Calvary Chapel. And the church group wouldn't be drinking.

Kyle Odegard covers Oregon State University. He can be contacted at kyle.odegard@lee.net or 758-9523.