The UW-Whitewater student Optimists, in conjunction with the Whitewater community Optimists, are helping to answer the question to many of the community’s money problems with some questions of their own.

The sixth annual Trivia Night, set for Friday Feb. 22 at 7 p.m, will include food, fun and philanthropy from both the teams participating and the organizers of the event.

“We raised money through team registration fees and donations from businesses in the community,” said Student Optimist Secretary, Alyssa Prodoehl. “The profit is then used to support the campus and community food pantry along with Whitewater High School.”

And the donation and support is well received by all of the programs benefiting.

For the Whitewater School District’s Family Emergency Fund, the donation will help the program carry on with

business as usual.

“This money is used to help families throughout our district in a variety of ways, including: rent assistance, utility bills, gas and grocery store cards,” said Mary Geraghty, the district social worker. “There are no administrative fees taken from this account so 100% of the money raised goes toward families in Whitewater who are going through a difficult time whether it’s a fire, job loss or some other situation.”

And for the food pantries within the community, the benefits are not only in the actual donation, but also in getting the word out to people about the pantry.

“The Optimist Trivia Night  encourages the participants to bring in non perishable food items as well as toiletry items to donate to the Campus Food Pantry as well as the Whitewater Community Food Pantry,” said Fabiola Aranda, the campus food pantry coordinator. “They also encourage participants to donate monetary donations, as well as the Community Optimist Club and the Student Optimist Club will split the monetary funds raised to both pantries.”

In the end, past the fun of the event, helping out these community programs and getting to know the people behind them is the real purpose of the night.

“Personally, I think that Trivia Night is a great way to meet the community that we’re helping,” said Prodoehl. “This night gives us the opportunity to go passed the titles of the institutions we aid and meet them on a personal level.”