Trivial Play for a serious cause
When the Literacy Connection held its 19th annual Elgin Trivia Bee fundraiser on April 9, the four-person team sponsored by the Elgin Kiwanis Clubs had to go into battle without member E.C. "Mike" Alft.
The former mayor and local historian had moved to Pennsylvania that very morning.
But the Kiwanians still were able to defeat the 18 other Trivia Bee teams and emerge No. 1 in the contest.
At the end of standard play, last year's victor, the team sponsored by Clee Engineering, was tied with Elgin Community College Faculty Association, one point behind the Kiwanians. So Clee and ECCFA went into a sudden-death playoff. Both were challenged to name what musical group the 2015 film documentary "Lambert and Stamp" was about.
The ECC team knew the answer was The Who. They finished in second place. The Clee folks didn't know that. They finished third.
Newcomers Glenn Fermoyle and Deborah Stowell had joined Kiwanis vets John Steffen (who's also an Elgin city councilman) and Tom Cotter. Fermoyle said they are veterans of the weekly "pub quizzes" that Bill Margeson runs in East Dundee.
Fermoyle said he didn't do any special studying for the Trivia Bee but he leads a lifestyle of absorbing miscellaneous facts. For example, if he's watching a movie on TV, he simultaneously will look up that movie on IMDB.com and read through facts about the film and its stars.
"When I was a kid, I would take out the encyclopedias and just leaf through them, reading about anything that caught my eye," Fermoyle said.
Other questions included "The Miracle Mop played a key role in what 2015 movie?" ("Joy"), "What company used the slogan 'We try harder'?" ("Avis Rent-A-Car) and "Halite is the mineral form of what common substance?" (salt).
The Literacy Connection uses a largely volunteer staff to teach people how to read and how to speak English. It serves 16 Northwest suburban Chicago communities. The agency provides customized one-on-one adult tutoring, English conversation groups and family literacy programs.
The organization needs money from the Trivia Bee fundraiser more than ever. Because state aid has been virtually frozen by the Springfield budget woes, the Elgin nonprofit has cut its employees' hours and pay by 30 percent, and canceled some programs.
Executive Director Karen Oswald said this year's bee raised about $20,000 from team entry fees and raffling off 40 donated prizes.
To learn more, visit www.elginliteracy.org, email info@elginliteracy.org, or call (847) 742-6565.