Gail Borden is trivia champ, again
Participating in a Trivia Bee is the closest a librarian will get to competing in the Olympics.
As least that’s how Tish Calhamer, who works as an information services librarian at Elgin’s Gail Borden Public Library, described her elation at winning the Literacy Connection’s Trivia Bee for the second year in a row.
“It was fun, but yes, we stay competitive and intense,” said Calhamer.
The event was held at Grand Victoria Casino in Elgin and featured 23 teams of four people who answered questions about Shakespearean characters, earth metals, European languages, car-racing, and much more.
A team from the Courier-News clenched the second spot in a sudden death round against Elgin’s Community Crisis Center, which placed third, and McNally’s Pub of St. Charles, which was fourth.
This year’s winning team also included Gail Borden librarian Patty Gathman, who has competed in all 14 editions of the event, and library assistants Andy Hollister and Stacy Michel. All work in the information services department.
Calhamer said this year’s questions were a little easier than expected.
“They had questions we didn’t know, but there was not much second-guessing or tossing around (of options),” she said.
Lynn Hammerlund, a member of Judson College’s team, said she had a feeling that morning that she’d better bone up on the names of the characters in MTV’s infamous series “Jersey Shore.”
Sure enough, the question came and Hammerlund got the answer right, “but those are brains cells I’ll never get back,” she joked.
The event is the Literacy Connection’s largest yearly fundraiser. It normally brings in about $15,000 from entry fees and silent raffle proceeds, although the last couple of years were disappointing, likely due to the state of the economy, said outreach coordinator Laurel Walther.
The Literacy Connection provides free English literacy tutoring to adults, and is always in need of volunteers, said executive director Karen L. Oswald.
“At any given time we have 100 people on the waiting list,” she said.
For more information about the Literacy Connection, call (847) 742-6565 or email info@elginliteracy.org.