On Jan. 5, WHS’ regularly scheduled school day was interrupted by a different kind of activity period than the school is used to: a Hollyrock Entertainment trivia game show organized by the Student Government Association.

“We wanted to find an activity period that was inclusive for everyone because we know that a lot of our events are normally physical activities and that’s not what everyone always wants,” said SGA Vice President Kaitlynn Czarnecki.

There was a combination of student and teacher trivia on topics such as food, Disney, Westfield and U.S. history. The student physical challenges included activities like hula-hooping, championship “Simon Says” and a scooter relay race. Both the teachers and the students participated in tug-of-war, increasing the already high energy in the auditorium.

Peter Shapiro and his assistant David had been hired to test the school’s mind and body in a humorously entertaining way. Initially split into a red team and a blue team, students who wanted to participate in a round raised their hands and were chosen at random by their teacher team captain.

It’s safe to say that both students and staff were competitive (as expected here at WHS). SGA Corresponding Secretary James Furrer said, “We had a lot of people participate; kids were really hyped up and excited about it.”

In the second segment consisting of Juniors and Seniors, the blue team took the lead, holding off the red team until the Disney trivia round, where the blue team lost 120-30. That balanced it out, leading to a final score of 500-500.

The tie-breaker round was a rapid fire round of random questions that ended in yet another tie leading to one final question: “What is the punctuation for an interrogative sentence?” In a few seconds, the red team scooped the win with the answer.

Many of the students loved this new activity period. Senior Max Romano said, “I loved going up [on stage] because it was cool to have the whole auditorium there and go in front of my peers and compete against them. I would 100 percent do it again.” Romano took the lead for the blue team by dominating in the food trivia portion of the show.

“I would definitely do it again; it was well received and the comments that I heard were really positive. It seemed like a great way to start the new year,” said Principal Mary Asfendis.

While most of their shows remain in the tri-state area, Hollyrock Entertainment travels from Washington D.C. to Maine doing 500 plus shows a year. Needless to say, WHS thoroughly enjoyed being one of their stops and Shapiro felt the same way.

“As high schools go, this was a very good high school show. I would give it a 9/10 because your students wanted to participate in a way that was different from most high schoolers,” he said.

The T.V game show certainly held the interest of the school, and one can hope that WHS will see Shapiro and David again.