Me..In a Pistons Trivia Contest??
By C Niemiec
As a member of the Quicken Loans/Rock Financial Community Relations team, crazy tasks come my way everyday….I’ve done everything from climbing through mounds of storage boxes to planning a trip to Cleveland so we could build a playground for schoolkids in one day – with the help of a bunch of teammates, of course! But what I was asked to do a couple weeks ago may have been my most challenging task thus far…..I was entered into a Pistons trivia contest with questions dating back to the 1950s!
Let me give you a little background on why I was entered into this contest. Quicken Loans and Rock Financial sponsor the Pistons’ efforts to renovate school libraries. The Pistons latest project was at Oakman Elementary/Orthopedic School in Detroit which serves grades K- 5 and physically and health impaired students. The Pistons’ had just renovated the schools library and provided them with 11 new computers and to celebrate, were throwing a “grand opening” party, including a Pistons trivia contest as part of the fun.
When I arrived at Oakman elementary school, all of the contestants got together. The teams were made up of sponsors (I was representing QL/RF), Piston “Greats” (former Piston players) and students from the school. I was on a team with John “The Spider” Salley and Bruce Tribble, who is a Make-A-Wish child.
After they told us how the contest was going to work, they led us to the stage in the auditorium where 300 Oakman students, staff, parents, Pistons greats and Read to Achieve sponsors were all gathered. At this point I was a little nervous. I was on a stage, with professional athletes, in front of 300 people and they were going to test my Pistons knowledge???? This was not looking good for me.
But once they started asking the questions I realized it wasn’t so hard. We were able to discuss the answers before we responded and I actually knew a few! I got two of the answers right and in the end MY TEAM WON!
After we had the Pistons trivia contest, we led the students into their newly refurbished library and they went crazy! The library was totally remodeled and stocked 1,000 donated books and 11 laptop computers with wireless Internet. Both the students and the facility were amazed.
After the celebration was over, I left Oakman Elementary thinking to myself, if it were up to me I would have avoided that event because it forced me out of my comfort zone. But in the end, I was so glad to have a job that not only pushes me to my limits, but also gives me the opportunity to experience life-changing events in the community where I live. Without my job, I would be missing out on some pretty cool stuff.
For more info and pictures of this awesome event check out the Pistons Community Site
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