December 18, 2024

By Darcy Fargo
Editor

Get a few friends and get ready to test your knowledge, have fun and win prizes, all while supporting vocations.
The Vocations Committee for St. Mary’s Cathedral Parish, St. Raphael’s in Heuvelton and Saints Philip and James in Lisbon is hosting Trivia Night on Jan. 3 at Martin Fieldhouse, formerly the Knights of Columbus building, in Ogdensburg. Doors open at 6 p.m., and trivia begins at 7 p.m.

Teams of up to six participants are encouraged to sign up to compete in “a contest of general knowledge across a variety of topics.”

The event was inspired by a similar event held in the Diocese of Syracuse.

“(Our Lady of Hope Parish) in Syracuse had a young man who had been a seminarian as he pursued his vocation as a priest,” said Sister Mary Eamon Lyng, a Sister of St. Joseph who is on the Vocations Committee for the Ogdensburg, Heuvelton and Lisbon communities. “He wanted to thank the parish for all their support and for promoting vocations. He held a Vocations Trivia Night. He did it in January. Some of the seminarians participated. Even though it was a big football day, and even though they had a snowstorm, they had a good turnout and raised a nice amount – I think it was $4,000 – to support seminarians and vocations. When I heard about it, I thought it was a great idea!”

That Syracuse parish helped with the Ogdensburg event.

“We’ve been very fortunate,” said Sister Eamon. “Our Lady of Hope Parish sent us their materials – their rules, questions, advertising tips – everything.”

Sister Eamon and Deacon James Crowley, also a member of the parish Vocations Committee, have been hard at work creating questions that cover a wide variety of topics.

“We started with the questions from (Our Lady of Hope Parish), and Sister found some websites we could use to get questions,” said Deacon Crowley. “We sat down together – Sister, me and (Deacon Crowley’s wife) Rita went through it all picking categories we thought would work best and questions we thought would work well. We made sure we had a couple of extra questions in each category in case we had an issue with a question.”
Deacon Crowley noted that there will be 10 categories, each including five questions.

“It’s not an overtly religious event,” he said. “The questions cover general knowledge – a variety of topics.”

For teams who want a little competitive advantage, players can buy “mulligans,” opportunities to get a response marked correct without answering.

Sister Eamon said seminarians from the Diocese of Ogdensburg have been encouraged to attend and participate in the event.

“Some of them are a fair distance away, but some aren’t far away,” she said. “And it’ll be a time when they’re home on break. We’re hoping they’ll participate.”

In addition to the opportunity to win bragging rights and a grand prize, door prizes will be awarded throughout the evening, and pizza, snacks and beverages will be available.

“It’s January. It’s cold,” said Sister Eamon. “The holiday parties will be over. Come out, get together with friends or family and have some fun!”

To see the trivia contest rules or to register, visit saintmaryscathedral.net/trivia or use the QR code included above.

Cost is $20 per person. Mulligans can be purchased for $10.