The Learning Center of Southwest Iowa is holding its first-annual fundraiser Saturday, March 11, with “Mad as a March Hare Trivia Night” at Creston Elks Lodge.
A social hour begins at 6 p.m. with the trivia challenge taking place 7-10 p.m. Teams of six will compete in the trivia challenge.
Corporate tables, which include six seats, are available for $350, while individuals may purchase tickets for $35. All ticket purchases are 100 percent tax deductible and 100 percent of the proceeds will go toward supplementing the cost of services provided by The Learning Center of Southwest Iowa.
“We invite the entire community to come out and have fun and support these valuable resources,” said Kathy Ralston, director of operations for The Learning Center. “We’re hoping to establish an annual fundraiser that we work into our budget to help us generate funds for our services.”
Ralston said the idea of a trivia night seemed to fit with The Learning Center. After discussing the idea for almost a year, board members saw other trivia nights pop up and have success.
So, board members decided to finally dive into the idea of a fundraiser.
Since it is March hare themed, participants are encouraged to wear their “maddest” hat. A contest will be held to determine the maddest hat, and Ralston said there may be a table set up for participants to create a hat, as well.
In addition to the trivia challenge, there will be several raffles throughout the night, plus a heads and tails game, similar to “Simon says,” with the last person standing winning half of the pot generated from participants.
“We’ll have some fun games in between trivia sessions,” Ralston said. “We hope it’s frolicy and frenzied and that everyone can enjoy themselves.”
The Learning Center board members and auxiliary volunteers have been working on forming the questions for the trivia challenge and Ralston said she’s been told the questions are difficult.
“I know several teams are studying up, because there’s going to be some competition that night,” Ralston said. “The questions will be of a varied assortment. There will be many different subjects. And, I hear there might be a Creston local-specific section, where if you are a longtime Crestonian, you might just do really well in that session.”
The Learning Center
The Learning Center of Southwest Iowa is a nonprofit learning center that provides intervention services to children who learn differently and children with learning gaps, while also providing support for their families.
“Under that umbrella, we work to provide students who learn differently with evidence-based interventions and supports needed to achieve academic success,” Ralston said. “Our vision is that children, their families and the schools that educate them will have access to these intervention services.”
Proceeds from the trivia night will go toward covering the cost of providing those services to children in the area.
According to Ralston, The Learning Center of Southwest Iowa provides those services at a much lower price than a family would find in Des Moines or Omaha.
“We have found through some market research that we’ve got ourselves priced just about as high as we can and it’s not quite as much as we need to provide that service,” she said. “It’s absolutely necessary for us to seek community support and donations in order to keep our doors open and grow resources here in the community.”