Students shared their love for Disney during the third trivia night of the semester, hosted by Associated Students (AS) on Feb. 22. Attendees packed into the Otter Express for a chance to win a Disney Loungefly bag.
Approximately 80 students attended, with some groups having to be split up to accommodate the number of students who wanted to participate. “[Trivia nights] have actually been really popular. It’s a brand new program through AS and students have absolutely loved it,” said Julie Ramirez, a fourth-year student and program specialist for AS who co-hosted the evening.
The night was split up into five categories, with 10 questions in each one. The categories were: “In the Parks,” “Walt Disney Company,” “The Classics,” “Disney Characters” and “Is It Disney?” The 20 teams in attendance cheered their way through the competition and the room was filled with laughter for the entire two hours of playing.
According to Ramirez, the first trivia night, which was music themed, brought out 15 teams. During the animals themed trivia night, the Otter Express hit capacity at 20 teams, which happened again with the Disney theme, which they mentioned had the biggest turn-out so far.
“It [attendance] has continued to increase each time and I think it’s because we try to pick topics and ideas that are really popular,” said Ramirez.
“Tonight was incredible, it was very packed. I feel honored to be a part of this,” said co-host Maya Bañuelos, a third-year and president of the Sports Club Council. Bañuelos has a personal connection to Disney, as her grandfather worked for Walt Disney.
“My grandfather was a construction worker in the1950s and when Walt Disney was hiring workers to build Disneyland, my grandfather was nearby in Santa Ana and got hired,” Bañuelos said. “He worked in Anaheim and built the moat, bridge and base of Sleeping Beauty’s castle. For the next 30 years or so, my family got free passes to Disneyland.”
The hard work of Ramirez and Bañuelos work paid off, as the students in attendance seemed to be having a great time, regardless of being stumped on a few questions.
“The questions were so much harder than we thought. There were so many about the company itself and a lot of important dates and years that we didn’t know,” explained fourth-year Jonah Bernstein, a member of the winning team.
“We were stressed out, but I think we did good. We all brought something to the table,” said Cidney Gaither, a third-year who was also a member of the winning group.
The highlight was the impromptu karaoke version of the “Phineas and Ferb” theme song. Following a question regarding the hit Disney Channel show, the crowd spontaneously started to sing the infamous theme song, and the joy of each student echoed throughout the OE.
In addition to the five trivia nights left, AS also has many other special events planned for the remainder of the spring semester.
Ramirez shared about an exciting upcoming event. “We have drag bingo coming up on March 16 in the OSU ballroom. We finalized our talent for that event, and she was a contestant on season 11 of RuPaul’s Drag Race.”
Students can continue to look forward to a trivia night every other Wednesday, with the next one being about cars trivia knowledge on March 8.
