On Thursday at 7 p.m in the Carey Auditorium in the Hesburgh Library, Johnson Family Hall hosted its annual signature event, “Johnson Family Feud,” which entailed a game of Family Feud between teams of Notre Dame students supporting For the Good South Bend.
Six teams participated in the competition, with two semifinalists and one winning group. Participants were asked questions ranging from dorm stereotypes to the best places to eat, both on and off campus.
Kristina Erskine, a participant from the winning group comprised of students from Kansas City, spoke with the Observer about why she and her group wanted to participate in the game, saying, “I love the Johnson Family Feud. I thought it was a great way to spread Notre Dame culture.”
Bill Hayes, another member of Erskine's team, similarly said, “We got a group together from KC. All five of us are from KC, and we thought trivia would be a lot of fun together, and we thought we'd be pretty good, and we won.”
Elle Dahle and Jiya Patel participated on the second-place team in the semifinals.
Speaking with the Observer before the event, Dahle said, “Our team is all from Lewis Hall. We're here to compete, and we're really excited to play. We hope to win.”
“We came in ready to win. We practiced last night for two hours. We're ready to represent Lewis, and we also love JFam,” Patel said.
Free food was served in the back of the auditorium, including chips with buffalo chicken dipping sauce, soda and water. Guests were invited to offer a donation for the food.
To attend the event, a single ticket cost $6 at the door and $5 if purchased beforehand. To register a team, it cost $10, with all proceeds going to For the Good South Bend.
For the Good South Bend is an institution based in South Bend whose mission is to foster a community of support, one that seeks the common good of its South Bend neighbors. The organization has a food shelf and a variety of support programs for homeless people among other initiatives.
Sophomore Isabella Tobin, who is part of the events committee in Johnson Family Hall, spoke with the Observer about the event and the planning process.
“The process for putting the event together probably started two months ago. We started thinking through kind of how we wanted this to work, where we wanted to be for it. We knew this is our signature event as we're a newer dorm and we're still working on getting it up and going,” Tobin said.
She continued, “We talked a lot with marketing so they could help get our questionnaire out so that we could spread the word and get answers. We needed a new answer bank with lots of new questions. We did that and used that as advertising. Then we had teams all sign up. About a week or so ago, we started putting together the bracket with all the different questions to put on a good event.”
