Rho Eta Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.® emerged from the Chickahominy Interest Group. Its first organizational meeting was held at Nielsen Restaurant, budding into the chartering on May 21, 1988. The occasion was celebrated at the Omni Hotel in Richmond, Virginia, under the leadership of then Mid-Atlantic Director, Mary Jefferies. The first President of Rho Eta Omega Chapter was Margie Chrichlow. Under her leadership, Rho Eta Omega held its first public event, “Illumination of Splendor”, at Bellwood Defense General Supply Center (DGSC, Chesterfield, Virginia). Our first signature program was called “Project Yes”, which stood for Youth Enrichment Services. This program served youths in grades five through eleven. It evolved into another signature program called “Ride For Knowledge”, where high school students were introduced to Historically Black Colleges and Universities first through various pre-college seminars and finally via a bus tour of various HBCUs. Today, our signature project is “Belles and Beaus” which is an enrichment program, which serves our middle school year youth.

Thirty years ago, Rho Eta Omega was chartered with thirty-seven members. We have currently grown to over 90 members, have won numerous awards and are very active in the Richmond community. Our motto remains: “We are small enough to be a sisterhood, and large enough to make a difference.”