January 12, 2011

Rotary Trivia Night tweaked to allow younger participants

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T he 2011 version of the popular Granville Rotary Club Trivia Night fundraiser will have an important new wrinkle: younger participants.

Trivia Night will be held at The Forum on Jan. 22 starting at 7 p.m. with the doors opening at 6:30 p.m.

Rotary Club member Dave O’Brien said the club made the move for the fourth year of the function to incorporate younger players following interest expressed by high school students.

“I’d encourage everyone to come out; it’s a great event and a great night,” O’Brien said.

A team of students and a team of teachers are expected to be among the entrants trying to outsmart the winners to each of the previous three years: veterinarians. Both large animal and small animal vets have won the title, with small animal vets taking the inaugural and most recent crowns.

The minimum age for participation had been 21 since the start of the trivia challenge because drinks were available at the bar.

“We dropped the age to allow high school students to participate if they want to; there has been some interest there,” O’Brien said.

Teams are asked to sign up as soon as possible. To enter a team, a contact person simply needs to call Peter O’Brien at TD Bank at 642-1010 and make a reservation under a team name.

The team name will help organizers get score cards prepared in advance of the event. Participants do not need to have a team of six people completely together to sign up, but organizers said it would help them plan if they knew how many teams were going to show up that night.

Teams can also go to the Granville Rotary Club website: granvillerotaryclub.org and download the application before taking it to the bank.

Teams can post their roster and pay their entry fee after signing up and rosters do not need to be final until the contest actually starts.

“I’m looking forward to seeing the involvement of the community, seeing who can answer what questions – I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of great participation we’re going to get from the community because we always get such get support,” O’Brien said.

“Spectators are always welcome,” O’Brien said. The cost for spectators is $5.

This year the team of Charla Jennings and Ivor Smith once again developed a new group of questions for the contest.

“We’ve got an all-new lineup of questions, a whole new pool of questions we’re pulling from,” O’Brien said.

Although some of the focus is one the title of trivia champion, the most important thing to remember is the true purpose of the evening’s festivities.

“The important thing to remember is all of the money raised goes back into the community to help with scholarships, students who are taking trips, community events … all of the money goes right back into the community,” O’Brien said.

O’Brien said numbers were going pretty good for sign-ups and it looked like the event might see a slight increase in participation over last year. There is still space for more teams and O’Brien said last-minute entries risk not getting a table in the Forum ballroom.

“I went to last year’s for the first time ever and I thought it was great, great fun and educational, too,” O’Brien said. “I’d encourage everyone to come out and join in, if anything else, you’re going to have a lot of fun.”