Pirate Island Trivia Night

On Friday, September 24, 2021 we hosted our first hybrid fundraiser, Pirate Island Trivia Night at Gail Borden Public Library after-hours. It was a transformed pirate themed night full of great company, delicious food and pirate adventure.

A BIG thank you to our Board, our sponsors 79 Ratio, Blackhawk Bank and State Farm, the Gail Borden Public Library for donating the venue and in-kind services and to all Staff for their continued support in making this event a success!

Kiwanis Club Wins 4th Straight Trivia Bee Championship

On April 27, The Literacy Connection hosted its 22nd Annual Trivia Bee Fundraiser. Eighteen teams came out to Elgin Community College to compete for the title of Trivia Bee Champion. After 3 rounds of 50 questions and a sudden death round to break the 2nd place tie, the big winner was Kiwanis Club of Elgin making this the 4th year in a row that the Kiwanis team has claimed the title!

Kiwanis team members (John Steffen, Deb Stowell, and Tom Cotter) are pictured here with Board President Jay Robinson and Executive Director David Zimmerman.

Team Christenson edged out our 3rd place team in a sudden death tie breaker round to secure the 2nd place trophy. Members of the team named to memorialize former board member, donor and tutor Gary Christenson are pictured above. (Nate Christenson, Tom Christenson, Shawn Mikulay, and David Sujak)

Rounding out our top 3 teams in this year's Trivia Bee was Rotary club of Elgin - Noon. Although not all 4 members are pictured above, it was definitely a team effort to beat some tough competition this year. (Vincent Barbosa, Dave Burisek, Rick Mogler, and John Regan)

Thank you to all the teams, spectators, donors and volunteers who helped make this year's event both successful as well as entertaining! With all your support, you helped us raise an estimated $15,000 to further our mission!

The Literacy Connection celebrated its 30th anniversary. A celebration and fundraiser took place on November 8, 2014 at the Grand Victoria Casino to commemorate this proud milestone. Thank you to those who attended and donated. We greatly appreciate your support.

The speaker was Rob Shindler, author & adult literacy advocate. To read more about the event, read this article, and for more about Rob Shindler’s talk, read this article.