By Sam Beall, AIA

Earlier this month, 40 intrepid souls braved snow and cold to gather at Dore and Whittier’s Cafe Space for AIA Vermont’s first ever trivia night. We ate, drank, and answered questions delivered to us by our incomparable emcee, Rolf Kielman (TruexCullins). There were six rounds of questions, with topics ranging from "Celebrities in Architecture" to "Architecture in Music." Sponsors included Efficiency Vermont and Engineering Ventures. We had multiple great team names, including "Frank Lloyd Wrong", "Alternative Facts" and "The Shady Crew."  

The Marvin windows team, "Starvin' for Marvin'" regretted their choice to not include an architect on their team, but kudos to them for playing along with us. The end game came down to "Blank Slate," a hodgepodge rag tag unit thrown together at the last minute against "The FFF’n Js", all Freeman French Freeman team. Thanks to the opportunity to challenge ($20 per challenge) and the Blank Slate’s deep and generous pockets, Blank Slate emerged victorious. I’m not saying they bought their way to victory, as they did have to answer the challenge questions correctly. But - they kinda bought the win. Congratulations to the Blank Slate Team, Michael Wisniewski, Bob Neeld, Katherine Rudski and David Epstein. Their win sent them home with 4 half priced tickets to Jay Peak. Huge thanks to them for helping to make the event a successful endeavor to raise money for AIA Vermont’s new Carol Miklos Community Outreach Grant.

The Carol Miklos Community Outreach Grant was created at the end of 2018 as a way to honor Carol's time and legacy as Executive Director for AIA Vermont. It was created to support initiatives and special funding requests which have the potential to foster engagement with architecture and design in Vermont's communities. Grant applications are open to AIA Vermont members, students, organizations and community groups, as well as members of the general public. Information and details on applying can be found here. 

Stay tuned for the next AIA Vermont Trivia night -- we're excited to do this all again soon. Many thanks to Catherine Lange and Evan Champagne (Freeman French Freeman) for helping to organize the event.