Phone Bank Volunteers Make KVSC Trivia Marathon Go

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- They are the engine that has made an annual St. Cloud event go for over four decades. The KVSC Annual Trivia Marathon wouldn't be what it is today without the countless volunteer hours of the people manning the phones. Thirty to forty people field the endless calls from trivia teams over the contests 50 hour weekend run.

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Station Manager Dan Seeger says free food is literally the fuel that makes the phone bank go, but that is not the only reason people sign up to help year after year:

"Realistically, I think a lot of the people do it just because it's really fun. There's amazing energy in that room. We have a lot of people who, this is the 47th year of the contest, we have a lot of people who have been answering phones for us for decades, and for them, just like for trivia teams, this is a big reunion weekend. They're coming in, and they're seeing people that they maybe see only once a year, but their best friends during the course of that year."

Seeger says a lot of St. Cloud State and KVSC alumni come back every year to help, and that they have a lot of couples who make working the phones a family tradition, too. He says it just takes a few minutes of training to get the volunteers up to speed, and they have an amazing scoring system that is easy to use.

Working the phone banks is a family tradition.

Doug Asquith, also known to trivia teams as "Not Wearing Pants," has been picking up the receiver for almost 20 years. Asquith says he keeps coming back because he loves chatting with all the teams:

"I very much like talking to the teams, having that banter, you know, telling people they're wrong is a very fun thing to do.  I'm not gonna lie, coming up with creative ways to do that is always fun."

Asquith says hearing the wrong answers teams come up with is pretty humorous as well. He also says that seeing all his phone bank friends is always so much fun. Asquith brought his now wife with him one year, and she too joined in afterwards, and he says his kids are already asking about when they can start picking up the phone. Wild West Trivia, KVSC's 47th Annual Contest, takes place from February 13 through the 15th and costs $60 to play.

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READ MORE FROM AUTHOR PAUL HABSTRITT