KENT, Conn.—Quiz Night, the long-running annual fall fundraiser for the Kent Memorial Library was again a lively evening. Doors opened at 6 p.m. to 49 teams of up to four participants at the Kent Volunteer Fire Department on Saturday, September 19.
The director of Kent Memorial Library, Sarah Marshall, has been donning her quizmaster hat since 2015. This year, the library teased a special guest emcee, after long-time emcee Steve Pener was unable to attend. Marshall introduced the panel of judges before revealing that her son, Alex Sanchez, would be the special guest emcee.
As is usual with events in Kent, Quiz Night was a family affair. Marshall’s husband, Glenn Sanchez was one of the judges, and their daughter, Victoria Sanchez, was on one of the four teams that tied for third place.
Kent residents Meredith and Harry Shafer played with her parents, Laurie and Andy Levin, on their team named “Happy Birthday Laurie.” The quad was decked out in party hats and celebrated with a respectable 72 points, tied for 13th place.
There are 110 possible points to be had in the ten-round, 100-question quiz. Quiz teams choose one round to double at the beginning of the night, based solely on the names of the rounds. Of course, the cleverly-named categories do not convey much in the way clues regarding the topic of the round. Participants make a guess about which round to double, and hope for the best.
The winning team Quizzy Bennett & The Pemberleys scored 80 points, having doubled their points in the third round. In this round, dubbed “Sidekicks,” Marshall challenged the nearly 200 assembled quizzers to name the title of a book based on a given description of a secondary character. Named for the protagonist of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, the obviously book-smart winning team scored a perfect 20 on the round.
Members of the Quizzy Bennett team, Colleen and Gene Campbell are no strangers to the top ranks of Quiz Night, having finished in the top three teams for the last five years. Their team this year was rounded out by their friends Cate and Brendan O’Dwyer. The team returned their $200 cash prize to the library.
Schroedinger’s Cats scored 78 points, coming in second place. The team, comprised of Kent Memorial Library’s children’s librarians Kate Zarin and Dorothy Shackleford, plus Alex Zarin, and Gregg Nichols, capitalized on their strong command of French, literature, and inventions.
The next four teams tied for third place with 77 points: Monster Feet, Better Late Than Never, We Couldn’t Find Two Friends, and Kent Remember Sh*t.
New this year, in lieu of a live music round, was “Sticky Situations.” The seventh round tantalized taste buds with a salt water taffy tasting. The candies were donated by local chocolate shop 45 on Main. The ten mysterious flavors included, among other more standard flavors, maple bacon, mango jalapeno, and dill pickle.
The fun night generally brings in about $2,000 for the library’s operating budget, after costs. After the first five rounds of questions, “half time” consists of a 50-50 raffle. Winner Dan Greenbaum donated back his part of the $363 to the library.
Throughout the night, players also bought tickets for the wine raffle. The wine collected as part of the entry fee is raffled off while the scorekeepers tally the final results. A box of 12 wines each were gifted to four different raffle winners.
Marshall ended the night inviting everyone to the library’s celebration of her 20 years at KML, Wednesday, Sept. 23, from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.
