Trivia contest wins over Literacy Volunteers fundraiser dinner

A 15-question trivia quiz turned out to be the star of the evening at an annual taste of the town dinner for Literacy Volunteers of America – Prince William.

The questions ranged from “Before they were the Potomac Nationals, what team was the Prince William Cannons affiliated with?” to “what do you call a word that has two meanings?”

The correct answers for this quiz: “Pittsburgh Pirates” and “auto-antonym,” respectively.

“Many of you thought that was an impossible question, but one team got it right,” said Ken Ikeda, the author of the trivia quiz and Chairman of the Literacy Volunteers Prince William Board of Directors.

More than 100 people cvame to the annual dinner event Wednesday night held VFW 1503 in Dale City. After sampling foods from more than 20 area restaurants, each table broke into teams and worked together to answer trivia questions as Ikeda read them aloud from a microphone on the stage.

He read three questions at a time, and then took a break so attendees could eat dinner and chat with friends and neighbors. At the end of the 15 questions, volunteers circled the room and collected the answer sheets which were then taken to a corner of the room to be reviewed, and the correct answers tallied.

“We’re looking for ‘Battle of Bull Run or Battle of Manassas,” Ikeda said to five volunteers sitting a table with answer sheets spread across a table. Each was feverishly working to check to see which teams correctly answered the question: “Name the first major land battle of the Civil War.”

“We’re not counting Fort Sumter, right,” asked Jack Vietmeyer, a 14-year-old volunteer.

“No, we’re not counting Fort Sumter,” replied Ikeda.

When all the answers were tallied, only one team received a perfect score. It was the team that correctly answered “auto-antonym.”

Creating trivia quizzes for events is now second nature to Ikeda. The Lake Ridge resident began creating them when his children attended Woodbridge Senior High School.

“I was involved with the PTO and we wanted to do something that would make the meetings more fun and interesting,” he said.

With his children long graduated from the school, he started making the quizzes for Literacy Volunteers Prince William dinners four years ago. They’ve caught on despite the fact many people can simply pull out a smartphone and use Google to look up the answers.

“That has changed things, but I hope everyone comes to play in the spirit of fun,” he said.

This year’s Literacy Volunteers of America – Prince William “Food for Thought” dinner featured 25 restaurants who shared their food with guests who all grabbed a styrofoam plate, forks, and napkins, and then walked around the room to sample the foods of their choice. Offerings included everything from Barbeque from Dixie Bones to Greek food from Montclair Family Restaurant.

Since its founding in 1991, Literacy Volunteers Prince William has grown 220 volunteer tutors who each year help 700 adults learn to read. Over the years., the program has served more than 8,000 people and helped more than 32,000 area families.