Last month, the Thelomathesian Society hosted the contentious Trivia Night. For those of you who couldn’t attend, you missed a great event! Before trivia even began, the Winston Room was roaring. The main floor filled up immediately, prompting us to open seats upstairs to accommodate everyone. Teams ranged anywhere from established organizations with low budgets to groups of friends trying to win a little extra cash. Students were laughing, eating Stewart’s ice cream and duking it out for the $1000.  

The first category was music: the first five seconds of a song played over the speaker, and teams had to name the song or artist. The songs ranged from “I’m Just Ken” from the movie Barbie to “Dream a Little Dream of Me” by the lovely Ella Fitzgerald. The next two rounds tested teams’ knowledge of St. Lawrence University and the North Country. (Did you know there are four Little Italy Restaurants in the North Country?) The fourth category was all about athletics, which I would’ve been stumped on if I had been playing. The fifth category was “Who Said It?” where film buffs soared. The final category was a SLU favorite: beer. Teams tried to picture the logo from the Corona bottle they’ve enjoyed one too many times and were stumped when they learned it was a griffin that graced the front.   

The points were tallied up, and by the end of the night, we had a clear-cut winner: SLU EMS! Considering how much SLU EMS does for our community, we could not think of a better team to take the cake. SLU EMS plans to use their funds for “more supplies or uniforms” and “a working ambulance if we get permission to have one!” Furthermore, after asking them about Trivia Night as a whole, they replied, “We had so much fun and felt so supported by the community afterward.”   

Commons College, who registered two teams, took both second and third place, scoring $350 for their house. When asked how they were choosing to spend their money, Commoner Jacob Bier   ’25replied, “Some will be going towards freshman engagement events, and the rest will go towards our hygiene-product drive for local students at JM McKenney Middle School and HC Williams Senior High School here in Canton.”  

The event was advertised as an opportunity to win money for one’s club or organization, and with a grand prize of $1,000, it was no surprise that nearly 40 teams signed up. Several students, however, felt that Thelmo was making them fight each other for funds, and in a time of drastic budget cuts, students were not happy. Other students believed we slashed budgets just to dangle the money in clubs’ faces. These rumors couldn’t be further from the truth.  

At the beginning of every semester, Thelmo hosts an event during the first few weeks of school to provide new and returning students with nondrinking weekend opportunities. In the past, Thelmo has hosted events such as roller skating and movie nights. These events, as you can imagine, are quite costly and are paid for by the Thelmo  Executive Board’s budget, not the contingency fund. For this reason, the Thelmo Executive Board decided to spend the money more thoughtfully and return as much of it as we could to the students’ pockets.   

Thus, Thelmo Trivia was born. Trivia Night had the lowest price in recent history for early semester Thelmo Executive Board events and all the funds were kept within the school. Not only was the event cost-effective, but the attendance was record-breaking, and students enjoyed themselves. One student even remarked that Thelmo “should do this every semester.” To whoever that student is, I would tell them to stay tuned.