Panoply Night at the Young Israel of Oceanside

Members of Young Israel of Oceanside did not know what to expect when they entered the temple’s social hall Saturday night Feb. 13. They were told that we were participating in a “Panoply” event, but only a select few truly understood that this was not your run-of-the-mill Sisterhood fundraiser.

Described as “trivia on steroids”, the participants were divided into teams of 10 players competing against each other to answer unique trivia questions spanning a wide variety of topics. The trivia questions incorporated an incredible amount of multimedia formats using video (who’s that weird Muppet?) and audio (fill in the rest of the line from that Billy Joel song), as well as smell (test your knowledge of spices) and taste (some people actually know what a Dr. Pepper jelly bean tastes like in 2 seconds). There were word puzzles, presidential anagrams, “Bible tweets” and maps. The competition consisted of four rounds, each timed for maximum effect.

The sisterhood event organizers selected the teams in order to bring together temple members from across the age and experience spectrum. This made the event – for example, it’s quite helpful to have a radiologist or physical therapist on your team when you are tasked with naming all the bones in the human skeleton.

In addition, they welcomed two young couples who are in contract to purchase homes in Oceanside, as well as two prospective families who wanted to investigate what the excitement was all about.

The winning team received a special prize package donated by some of our temple’s esteemed culinary experts and wine connoisseurs.

By the end of the night, more than one hundred people had enjoyed an event like none other, while getting to know friends and neighbors in a new light. Some members are already thinking about trivia questions and formats for next year’s Panoply event, while others were simply mesmerized at how much knowledge they actually retained about obscure Disney characters from their youth.