Vermont Historical Society Offers Wednesday Night Entertainment (And More!)

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Created on Wednesday, 29 April 2020 22:26

Written by Lauren Cornell

VERMONT- The Vermont Historical Society will be holding their fifth Vermont History Trivia Online event tonight at 7:00 pm. The topic of tonight’s trivia game will be Famous Vermonters.

The first trivia game, hosted and run by the society’s Public Program Manager Amanda Kay Gustin, was on April 1st. Since then, the trivia nights have been happening weekly. 

 “We’ve actually had a trivia program for about two years now. I spent a few months delivering it as a traditional pub-style trivia at breweries and restaurants around the state, ” says Gustin. 

“Once it was well-established, we reformatted the game as a kit that local organizations like historical societies, libraries, and others can borrow for a nominal fee. We offer it digitally or physically,” Gustin explained. 

“When the stay at home order went into place, and we were brainstorming what programs we could quickly and easily convert to digital, the trivia game came to mind immediately,” says Gustin. She started repurposing questions from the original trivia kit but has begun to write new questions each week to use for the weekly online games. 

Initially, there was a technological learning curve for many attendees, but they have since gotten over it. “We’ve been growing steadily in audience. Last week’s game had 45 people attending in Zoom, and several reported that they were playing with multiple members of their household all together,” Gustin reported

Gustin really enjoys hosting the weekly trivia nights. “ People have been having fun and teasing each other in the chat, which I think might be my favorite part.”

“Right now, the last one is scheduled for May 13, but we’re committed to doing them weekly for the duration of the stay at home order. If the Stay-at-home order does end on May 15 as planned, we’ll gauge interest in continuing them in the online format on an occasional basis,” says Gustin. 

The two upcoming trivia nights will be on Vermont Geography and Vermont Music and Movies. 

“Our goal with this and our other virtual programming right now is to connect people to each other through history, even though we’re all staying physically apart,” Gustin explained. 

Gustin wanted to remind everyone that the Vermont Historical Society is an independent nonprofit. “Though we receive a state appropriation each year, we are responsible for raising more than half of our operating funds ourselves every year.”

To find out more information about tonight's game and the link to play, visit the society's website.

Highlighting VHS’s Other Online Resources:

The society has more online events up their sleeves, including webinars on various topics such as genealogy and exhibit creation, according to Gustin. “We’ve been actively thinking about virtual programs for a little while now, and the COVID-19 crisis accelerated that greatly. We will definitely be continuing some kind of virtual programming in the future, especially as in-person events are uncertain for a little while. On a bigger level, as the statewide historical society we’ve always worked hard to reach as much of the state as possible, and virtual programming is a good way to do that.”

 Currently, the Vermont Historical Society has a lot of online resources available for every audience. On their website, you can find podcasts, videos, games, articles, and more. For educational resources for students in kindergarten through twelfth-grade, Gustin suggests checking the bottom of the page.

There are also more virtual programming opportunities, including conversations with Vermont-based museum experts on topics useful to local historical societies, which can be found here.

Their annual History Day contest will still happen but in a virtual setting. Students across the state have completed their history projects, and they are currently being judged. There will be a live awards ceremony for these projects on May 8th via Facebook. 

Lastly, there is a new initiative to collect information about the COVID-19 impact on Vermont. “We’re inviting Vermonters to submit photographs, websites, poems, artwork, journal entries, and more that show how they’re experiencing this historical moment. The submissions serve two goals. First, they’re showing us all how much this is a collective experience, and that everyone is going through it together, and second, they’ll be an incredible archive for future researchers to use to reflect back on this historical moment,” says Gustin. For more information on the initiative, check out their website here.