Tonight we gathered up my parents, Tom and Debbie, and Jenny Galle and her boyfriend Ryan, and went to a Trivia Night to benefit Blake Smith. Blake, the son of our friends Kirk and Rebecca Smith, was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis six months ago and the costs for his care are astronomical. To help make ends meet, Rebecca’s sister Carrie put together this event, and it was a doozy! There were so many donations to be auctioned off, including a luxury box at Busch Stadium, which went for $3200! There were also over 30 raffle items, and we lucked into a gift certificate to Bristol’s and a gift certificate to WingHaven Spa. There were also over 30 tables crammed into the Knights of Columbus hall in Hazelwood, which made it a little hard to hear the moderator, but them’s the breaks.
But on to more important things: the trivia. My dad works with Carrie at Fireman’s Fund and he told her about the debacle that was the Oakville Baseball Team Trivia Night, she was terrified that she would get a scathing review as well. Fortunately for us, Carrie is not retarded. In fact, she put together a fun, creative, engaging trivia night that kept the competition close down to the wire and also taught us all a little bit about Cystic Fibrosis.
Throw in our TOTAL DOMINATION and you’ve got the ingredients for a fun evening.
But now, I ‘m getting ahead of myself. The categories were (take note, Oakvillers):
- Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?
- St. Louis Slogans
- Food and Beverage
- Fun and Games
- Hollywood Cars
- Don’t Forget The Lyrics
- That’s a Winner – St. Louis Sports
- U.S. Government
- Women in History
- Original vs. Remake
In addition, each round had a bonus question about Cystic Fibrosis.
You see how that works? You mix in some riffs on currently popular gameshows (5th Grader and Lyrics (I don’t watch either one of these shows, but I can see why they are successful (Hint: Finishing lyrics is fun))), some regional questions (but broadly regional, not Oakville-specific), some general knowledge, some pop culture, and then you spread out the Hard-And-Specific Questions (what some would call Inside Baseball) over each round as a bonus. It’s not that hard, Oakville (I’m not still bitter or anything).
While we started off slowly, again, we were able to come back and take the lead by the 8th round and hold the lead by one slim point going into the 10th. We figured we’d need to sweep the 10th category, Originals and Remakes, and we did just that. It was a clutch performance, hinging on the 7th question:
Q: The original movie starred Jerry Lewis and Stella Stevens. The remake starred Eddie Murphy and Jada Pinkett Smith.
A: The Nutty Professor (thanks, Debbie)
Toss in Ryan’s game savers of Cape Fear and Gone In 60 Seconds, and we were able to take all the movies and the bonus question to win by 1 point over the table next to us. Boo. Yah. Boo-yah, I say!
All in all, a fun and successful evening. Our only complaint was that it was very hard to hear the people speaking. But when you consider that it was partly due to the sheer number of people in the room who came to support Blake (and the open bar might have something to do with that), we were happy to strain to hear in the name of a good cause.
Thanks, Bob. I really appreciate the glowing review. We know the audio sucked (at least the microphone) and will naturally take steps to correct that next time. Including not having a gravely-voiced announcer. I’m so glad you guys came and had a good time! My fear is no longer, Bob is kind.
You heard it folks! If Bob’s website says it was a hit, it must have been! So, line up to get your tickets for next year! By the way, Bob. You can feel free to post: We made over $10,000 for Blake’s Account, $600 to turn into the Great Strides walk for Cystic Fibrosis Research and I got 45 people to sign up to be Organ Donors!!!!!! It was a success!!!!!
Thanks for the glowing review. We certainly appreciated everyone’s participation, including the noisy people who came out to party. Certainly the more the beer and Jell-o shots flowed, the more money was spent! We are all in awe of the generousity of those in attendance and those who made donations for the silent auctions, raffles and door prizes. Never having hosted a Trivia Night before, there was the real possibility of glitches and a number of sleepless nights endured by the event hosts (Carrie and Rebecca, you know who you are!) but overall, things went well and we learned a lot for the next one. Thanks for your participation as well.
BTW – I wouldn’t know what stands on the grounds of the original Dierbergs… Trish (aka, Blake’s Grandma)
Thanks Bob for the great review. We couldn’t have said it better. Carrie and Rebecca and John and Kirk did do an amazing job especially since this is the first time ever to do anything like this. The support from friends, family, merchants, etc. was tremendous. The birthday cakes were a complete surprise and Ethan leading the singing of Happy Birthday was just terrific.
from couldn’t be prouder ,
Grandma and Great Grandma Mary Ann
P.S Our son and his family came to town from Iowa to participate for Blake.
P.S. I sincerely appreciate the “Carrie is not retarded.” The more people I can get to vouch for me, the better.
It’s the least I could do to try and clear up that unfortunate misconception.
That doesn’t seem like TOTAL DOMINATION to me.
I’ve known Carrie a long time, and I’m not so sure about that retarded thing. On the other hand, people always say she’s like me, so….um…I guess she’s not.
Steve
(Carrie’s uncle)
Hi Bob – Everyone was holding their breaths, hoping for a good review. Does this mean you are getting a reputation as an influential force in critical circles? Good Job – Good Cause. Dad