The team from Elmira Mennonite Church ended the Hawkesville and Markham church dynasties at this year’s Bible quizzing competition, held on April 9, 2016, at Steinmann Mennonite Church near Baden.
It has been nine years since a team other than from the Hawkesville or the Markham-Stouffville youth groups won the competition organized by Mennonite Church Eastern Canada (MCEC). For the past three years, it was Hawkesville’s name on the plaque, and in the three years before that, Markham won the competition. In 2008 and 2009 the wins also went to Hawkesville and Markham.
Elmira was delighted to have its very first win. Although the youth group frequently fielded teams over the years, they rarely made it to the final stages. This year’s team appeared to be young, but they brought a team approach to the competition and regularly gained points for having four different quizzers give correct answers. Members of the Elmira team were Cole Bauman, Emily Bauman, Riley Bauman, Vivian Chau, Justin Frayne, Nicolas Ruza and Tia Ruza.
Because there were only five teams this year, each team competed with each of the other teams in the round robin. As well as Elmira, this year’s teams were from East Zorra Mennonite (near Tavistock, Ont.), Community Mennonite of Drayton, Ont., First Hmong Mennonite of Kitchener, Ont., and from the combined churches of the Markham-Stouffville (Ont.) area. The East Zorra team was in first place going into the semi-finals, but the final match was between Elmira and Community. Questions this year were from the Book of Joshua.
The Quizzer-of-the-Year Award went to Julianna Suderman of East Zorra. This award, chosen by the quizmasters and judges, provides a $500 scholarship either to Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ont., or Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg, Man.
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