Dozens of community members raised about $8,500 for the Flossmoor Veterans Memorial (FVM) at the third annual trivia night at the Flossmoor Community House on Friday evening, March 15, according to FVM officials.
The FVM will be a Wall of Honor listing all Flossmoor residents who have served in the United States military. While the original funding goal was met, due to inflation and other costs, the price tag has gone up, FVM president and former Flossmoor mayor Paul Braun said.
Braun said that as soon as some grants are made, construction of the memorial is set to begin this spring.
Trivia contestants were made up of nine teams of six or fewer people. Teams sat together at their tables, which cost $100 and were sold out before the event.
Teams could buy mulligans for $6 apiece or six for $25. A mulligan was represented by a small smiley face sticker. On the sheet where the teams’ answers were made, contestants were able to stamp the sticker in place of an answer.
No phones were allowed during trivia.
There were six rounds of 10 questions in different categories. The categories were Homewood-Flossmoor High School lore, Flossmoor lore, movie quotes, baseball trivia, United States military trivia and famous military veterans.
One of the Flossmoor lore questions was, “What was the original name of Western Avenue?” The answer was Homewood Avenue.
Braun read the trivia questions for most rounds. Joining in a pre-recorded video on the display television, Navy Adm. Patrick Driscoll, a Flossmoor resident, read the United States military trivia questions.
After each round, Boy Scouts and other volunteers went to each table and collected the answer sheets. Contestants groaned, cheered and clapped after hearing the correct answers.
John Beele, a Flossmoor resident, Marine Corps veteran and captain of the Wally Burns VFW Post in Homewood, stood up from his chair. He sang the Marine Hymn, a morale-boosting song that’s been sung by the United States Marines since World War Two. Other audience members clapped.
Flossmoor resident Michael Goldberg was the auctioneer for the live auction. Two four-hour sailboat cruises of Lake Michigan for seven people and a dinner at the Columbia Yacht club were sold. Flossmoor village trustee Gary Daggett will be providing his sailboat for the ;cruises.
The cruise and dinner were sold to Henry Bianchi and Carlos Quezada-Gomez who each had winning bids of $1,400. Quezada-Gomez said he was giving it to his friend and trivia teammate Gina LoGalbo, Flossmoor village clerk and FVM steering committee member.
For $300, Flossmoor village trustee Brian Driscoll won the other item sold at auction – the shovel that will be used for the FVM groundbreaking.
“I’ll get to turn some of the dirt at the ceremony. I’m excited,” Driscoll said.
Raffle tickets were sold as single tickets and by the wingspan. The winning raffle numbers were read out loud by LoGalbo, Flossmoor Veterans Memorial Secretary-Treasurer Kris Condon and steering committee member Josh Grenard.
Stephanie Oliver won a painting of Flossmoor Station.
Other raffle items included but weren’t limited to Girl Scouts cookies, a $25 gift card to Gypsy Fix in downtown Flossmoor, a three-hour rental of Flossmoor Community House, a painting of a soldier saluting next to an American flag and baseball caps with the Marines, Navy, Air Force and United States Coast Guard logos.
“This group does such a great job of organizing this event and the community does an amazing job supporting it,” Flossmoor Mayor Michelle Nelson said.