On Saturday evening, February 1, 2025, The Scholarship Foundation of Wakefield, Inc.(TSF) proudly presented the 33rd Annual Trivia Team Challenge (TTC) at the Wakefield Lodge of Elks. A total of 30 teams, including seven rookie teams, participated in a night of questions and camaraderie.  In their second year as Trivia Co-Chairs, Tricia Desrocher and Kelley Chapman noted that all the participants and attendees enjoyed a wonderful evening of team competition and fun.  Event Photo Album in FB

As always, the competition was intense with many outstanding veteran and rookie teams competing for top honors.   Finishing in first place was the seasoned team of Eponymous, consisting of Lucy Skeldon, Lauren Crews, Dan Crews, and K.C. Skeldon.  Following closely in second place was Zuzu’s Petals including Judith Terrazano, Carolyn Licata, Jim Licata, and Rich Wronski.  Third place was claimed by La Casas, with members Jim Casamento, Eva Casamento, Matthew Casamento, and Alex Csizinszky.  The 4 Leaf Clovers, composed of Sheila Eriksen, Barbara Cassidy, Frank Cassidy, and Tim Sweeney took home Rookie of the Year honors.  

TSF President T.J. White kicked off the evening by welcoming the participants and expressing gratitude for their support of this year’s Trivia Team Challenge, which will help fund awards to Wakefield students in June 2025.  

The evening was moderated by Michael Kilkelly, who along with his wife Susan, was responsible for crafting the questions that made the evening a fun and challenging event.  Teams competed in three 25-question rounds, with the top-scoring teams advancing to the fourth and final round.  Question topics included sports, entertainment, geography, history, literature, pop culture, and picture identification.

Generous event sponsors of this year’s TTC were The Wakefield Rotary Club, The Savings Bank, and One-on-One College Consulting.  TSF of Wakefield appreciates the support of these organizations and the role they played in the night’s success.  

There are many additional individuals without whose hard work and attention to detail an event the size of the Trivia Team Challenge would not be possible.  A special thank-you goes out to our emcees and question team Michael Kilkelly and Susan Kilkelly; to Linda McManama, Cathy Wensley, and Gayle Wettach for coordinating the raffle table and to Cathy Donovan for coordinating our separate Red Sox raffle; to Faith Hodgkins for chairing the snack table with many desserts donated by the TSF directors; to Jo-Anne Bourque, Beth Sullivan and Kathy Scanlon for handling pizza coordination and sales; to Katie Fallon for being our official greeter; to Stacey Constas for being our official timekeeper and to Frank McLean and Rick Desrocher who took on the role of scorekeepers for the night, and again to Frank for all the heavy lifting and equipment setup prior to the start of the evening.  We thank Jennifer and Rich Walter for their coordination of the evening and support of the setup, cleanup, scorekeepers and technology.  Lastly, we welcome and thank Dave Miller for taking on the very important role managing the digital display of questions and scores throughout the evening.

This year 12 enthusiastic high school volunteers assisted during the evening, under the supervision and guidance of Meg Delory Leahy. The TSF student directors helped in setup and cleanup as well as during the event passing out picture questions, collecting answer sheets, and helping in the drawing of the winning raffle tickets.  The students also posted outstanding updates on Instagram throughout the night.  Thank you to the student directors who assisted us: Molly Anderson, Audrey Callahan, Brandon Meahl, Madelyn Bergeron, Katelyn Bergeron, Marie Estrada, Aidan Martin, Andrew Nett, Brandon Nett, Ahmed Othman, Alla Othman, and Maya Palic.

Co-Chairs Tricia Desrocher and Kelley Chapman also thank TSF Administrators Anne Miller and Jennifer Walter for their work behind the scenes. The preparation before and after the evening is crucial and proved to be “the glue of the event.”  They both ensured that everything from the early planning to the wrap-up was beyond precision. The co-chairs added, “we can’t thank them enough for the over-and-above role they played in this year’s Trivia Team Challenge.”

A special thank you also goes out to the Wakefield Lodge of Elks and Erik Jeter who helped make the evening a smooth experience.

Following the second round of questions, raffle tickets were drawn and the lucky winners were notified of their prize just prior to the start of the final round. There were many terrific prizes and our thanks go out to those that generously donated or procured a prize including Lisa Erban, Jay Pinette, Jo-Anne Bourque, Broadway in Boston, Gayle Wettach, Rosanne Phillips, ArtsEmerson, Dolan Flavoring Company, Paul & Katie Fallon, Linda McManama, Rich & Jennifer Walter, Beth Sullivan, Tricia Desrocher, Stacey Constas, Jean Maio, Cathy Donovan, Walter Dolan, Mary Anne Power, Lucy Skeldon, Cathy Wensley, Kathleen DeCosta, YMCA of Metro North, Faith Hodgkins, and Kelley & David Chapman.  We also want to thank the Boston Red Sox and Brian Shield for his assistance in this year’s raffle donation of a Red Sox experience.

The popularity of the event this year was no doubt aided greatly by the publicity offered by local media. Thank you to Jon Pinkney and the Wakefield Daily Item for assistance promoting the event. Appreciation is also extended to Laura Gecoya of JC Marketing for taking photos of the winners and participants.

 TSF extends a special thanks to WCAT and Ian McDermott for the use of projection equipment and setup assistance that was vital to providing the visual presentation. 

The 33rd Trivia Team Challenge was a tremendous success thanks to everyone involved. The co-chairs wanted to give a big thank you to the Wakefield community and beyond, adding: “the support of events such as Trivia night is a testament to the ongoing support TSF receives from so many. We were grateful to continue this tradition and we look forward to many more nights like this.”