Maylee Ohlman

Trivia Night will reject the exclusivity of past Quiz Bowls and foster connections across FHPS.

For Forest Hills Northern senior and NHS Student President Aanya Dogra, the Quiz Bowl event of FHPS’s Go Orange Week has always been unexciting. Traditionally, each branch of FHPS schools—Central, Northern, and Eastern—would send intelligent students to the event each year for a contentious, high-level trivia competition. The atmosphere was tense and dramatic, fueling rivalry between schools rather than fostering friendly rapport. 

However, this year the event has been rebranded as Trivia Night, which will happen on March 5 from 7:00-8:15 p.m. in the FHN cafeteria. Now, it will welcome all members of the FHPS community, whether they be students, staff, or relatives. Instead of academic valor, the event will feature a broad range of trivia questions, from pop culture to sports, as well as interactive music opportunities.

Having been a Quiz Bowl participant in the past, Aanya is looking forward to this more upbeat and community-based version.

“I’m really excited because I participated in Quiz Bowl in the past, and for me, it wasn’t really something that I was that interested in,” Aanya said. “But I think there are some new and different things about Trivia Night, which can make it really cool. And I can’t give any spoilers, but there will be ways that the game can kind of switch up. So I would recommend people to bring cash for a little bit of a twist on the ‘typical’ trivia night.”

Not only will Trivia Night highlight connectivity, but it will also hold a greater role in the significance of Go Orange Week as a whole. FHC AP World History and AP Psychology teacher Danielle Redman is one of the organizers of this year’s event and is glad to see the shift. 

“The previous format of Quiz Bowl had no fundraising element to it, which defeats the purpose of Go Orange Week, because we’re trying to raise money for Kids’ Food Basket,” Redman said. “So [the change] was made so that we could turn it into a fundraiser. Each team is required to submit an entry fee of $25, so now you can have a team of four to eight people.”

Every team will be branded as a group from either FHC, FHN, or FHE, with the intent to maintain cordial relationships between districts as in the past, but with greater companionship and teamwork for a cause. FHN Project NEXT Social Studies teacher Sean Duffie hopes that the new inclusivity will encourage students who may not have previously been interested in Quiz Bowl to join. 

“The hope here is that we can get more visibility for Kids’ Food Basket to populations that maybe wouldn’t show up for some of the other events,” Duffie said. “With the sports events that happen that week, if you’re not already a sports-going student or family, you may feel the good pressure to go and support Kids’ Food Basket and your team. But the hope here is that it creates a little bit more accessible play for people who are looking to have something interactive and something with meaning that they can participate in that maybe looks different than the other opportunities out there. We’re really hoping to ideally get up to 20 teams, maybe even beyond that, and we’ll see what they can do together.”

In preparation for Trivia Night and Go Orange Week, which runs from March 2-6, Aanya and the rest of the FHN National Honor Society (NHS) Executive Board have been promoting the occasions as much as possible. 

“We’re broadcasting on our FHN News, which happens every day during communication breaks,” Aanya said. “We’re making little videos to interact with the entire student body and get people excited. We’re also sending it out to parents and community members, and encouraging people [to join] because it’s a good way for students to get [NHS] hours, but also a good way to get other people involved in the community—especially the people that don’t just go to our school, but staff and parents as well.”

With this increased publicity, Redman believes that the engagement rate will be much higher than in previous years. Additionally, the past restriction on the number of teams allowed to play has been removed, allowing for more involvement.

“There was a limit on the number of people who could have participated in a Quiz Bowl,” Redman said. “Because it is very structured with how many students can be on stage at one time, competing for our team, and how many rounds we could fit into an hour-and-a-half competition. But this way, there is an unlimited number of teams each school can bring. So if you want to sign up with friends and 50 other groups also sign up, there is no limit.”

Trivia Night is indeed promised to be a night without any limits—no limits to excitement, bonding across districts, fundraising, and doing something greater than just a singular student, parent, or staff member. It will be a night infused with joy and purpose, in the knowledge that a step forward, no matter how small, can make an indomitable impact.

“I’m really excited about hype,” Duffie said. “We’ve seen it historically at all of our three buildings. I think Go Orange [Week] has the capacity to remind people that it’s little moves in their day that can still even be fun, that can really shake the ground and make sure that we are aware of the real important causes out there. Kids’ Food Basket is kind of a romanticized ideal—that we play these games or whatever, and we solve kid hunger. That’s not going to happen just in Forest Hills Public Schools for a week. But what’s nice is that it creates an empathetic and low-barrier entryway for people to be reminded that it only takes a little bit of effort. So come to basketball, come to dodgeball, come play some trivia questions that you have no idea what to expect. And after an hour, you’ve tossed some coins in the direction of something meaningful and are reminded that you did it more than just for the fun. I think everyone deserves a chance to feel that, and that’s why Go Orange Week and nights like Trivia Night can be so special.”