On Saturday, September 24th, Dalhousie’s Engineering Brigades Society hosted their first event of the new school year. It was a night filled with laughter, Shrek themed trivia, and some shrek-tatular, shrek-zy costumes.
The night started off with some opening remarks from exec members Gabby and Ashley. They welcomed their excited guests and gave a brief presentation about Global Brigades; the society’s mission, how people can get involved, and how you can continue to support the society if you are unable to volunteer.
Global Brigades (GB) is an international non-profit organization and is 100% student funded. These brigades occur all over the world as GB is partnered with communities in Ghana, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama. The Dalhousie Engineering Chapter, however, focuses their efforts on helping communities in Honduras. GB’s mission is to inspire and collaborate with various communities to achieve their health and economic goals. The past few years, the Dalhousie engineering brigade has helped communities in Honduras restore, repair or develop a water system, thus allowing the community to access fresh, clean water without traveling long distances like they are now.
After the opening remarks, Gabby and vice president August started the first round of Shrek trivia. In case you’ve lived under a rock for the last 10 years and have never seen any of the Shrek movies, Shrek is an ogre who lives in a swamp in peaceful solitude. His tranquility is abruptly ruined by a large group of fairytale characters who were banished from their home by the short and angry Lord Farquad. In order for Shrek to save his swamp, he makes a deal with Lord Farquad; if he rescues princess Fiona so Lord Farquad can marry her, then he will be able to return to his peaceful swamp. In summary, after a long adventure (that spanned many movies) Shrek and Fiona fall in love and live happily ever after.
Trivia included many detailed questions about all four Shrek movies. The first few questions allowed for the teams to warm up their trivia skills; generic questions about Shrek were asked such as if Shrek was considered an orge or a troll. After the first 10 questions, the hosts paused trivia for a quick intermission, this allowed time for guests to refresh their drinks and regroup with their team members to prepare for the second round. Many people had used the intermission as an opportunity to try the themed shot of the night, the Shrek Shot. It was a mixture of green apple Sour Puss and Midori.
After some technical difficulties, the hosts were back and round two of Shrek trivia had begun, proving to be more challenging than the first. The questions had progressively gotten harder; the guests were being quizzed on if they knew the name of the bar where Puss in Boots made his first appearance in the movie, or exactly how many buttons Gingy the gingerbread man wears.
Trivia eventually came to an end, and three contestants came on top as the third, second and first place winners. The third place winner was Will the Goot, second place was The Muffin Man, and finally the first place winners were the Shrekaholics. The winners were rewarded with drink tickets from the T-room. Shortly after trivia had ended, the costume contest had begun. Everyone in attendance was given an opportunity to vote/nominate someone as having the best costume of the evening. The winner had been Greame Hunter, who had dressed up in a shrek-tactular costume of Gingy the gingerbread man.
After trivia had ended, the society had also organized a grilled cheese station outside of the T-room. Executive members, Zoe and Ashley, were kept busy with making many grilled cheese sandwiches for the hungry guests, with all proceeds going directly to the society to help their fundraising goal. Banana peppers were supplied as well if guests wanted them in their sandwiches, as recommended by Gabby.
Overall the night was considered a huge success. The event raised over $500 dollars and will be distributed to the five executive members; President Gabby, Vice President August, Fundraising Head Ashley, Events Head Katrina, Social Media Coordinator Abbey, and VP of Finance Zoe. The society is overjoyed with the outcome of Shrek trivia and is looking forward to planning their next event. DalEng Global Brigades will soon be looking for more student volunteers for their upcoming trip to Honduras in May 2024. For more information about the Dalhousie Engineering Global Brigades Society, check out their instagram account at daleng.globalbrigades!