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Service From the earliest years, Pi Beta Phi has led the way in altruistic support. By giving time, money and self, Pi Phis reveal themselves as true angels.
As it became evident that Pi Phi's responsibility for elementary and high school education facilities in Gatlinburg would be phased out, the Settlement School committee approached the University of Tennessee with a plan to bring instruction on the college level to Gatlinburg. It was the committee's idea to develop an arts and crafts program at the Settlement School. The first 6-week workshop was held in 1945, with credit given in weaving textile design, recreational crafts, woodworking and community recreation. Over the years, the buildings on Settlement school property were converted to dormitories, new buildings were erected and others renovated to facilities for the expanding needs of the Craft Workshops. These workshops culminated in the establishment of the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts.
Chapters find local agencies or schools that welcome their help through book-distribution or one-on-one interaction with pupils who need extra attention as they learn to read. Through active involvement in literacy programs, Pi Beta Phis advance the founding purpose of promoting the happiness of humanity.
Donations from Pi Phis everywhere have provided support for the many branches of the library systems in the Yukon and Northwestern Territories. While the Canadian government supplies an adequate budget for the purchase of basic books, there is little available for the extras that add to a library's usefulness. Money from the Arrow in the Artic Project has provided expensive reference volumes, a video recorder to tape legends and folklore in the Inuit language, and the necessary books and periodicals for an Indian Resource Center. More than $25,000 has been donated to the library system.
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Soon
after convention closed, investigation of possible school sites began.
Grand President May L. Keller, Anna Pettit and Emma Harper Turner set
out for Tennessee, and into the mountain districts that had been
designated by the U.S. Bureau of Education as the most in need of
schools. Dr. Keller made the first trip into Gatlinburg. Travel to there
was over some of the worst roads in Tennessee. There were no bridges,
and fording the river was necessary. The schools were mostly one-room
wooden structures. Most of the teachers had never attended high school,
and consequently were teaching the children to the highest level that
they had completed - fifth grade. The area was deprived of household
economics, health care, higher education, and scientific farming.
Gatlinburg was finally chosen as the school site. With the appropriation
of $500 from the Endowment Fund of the Fraternity, the Pi Beta Phi
school was opened in March of 1912. 
