* This is a worthwhile event, and I hope to see as many of you as possible this Saturday night. I’ll be there…

A trivia night fundraiser will be held on Nov. 14 in Springfield to raise money for the Public Affairs Reporting Vu Nguyen Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship was created in memory of Vu Nguyen, a 2008 graduate of the University of Illinois at Springfield and talented statehouse reporter who died in May 2009.

The trivia night begins at 7 p.m. at Floyd’s Thirst Parlor, 210 S. 5th Street in Springfield. Doors open at 6 p.m. Tickets are $10 each, and participants are welcome to form teams up to 10 people. The winning team will be given a cash prize, and a 50/50 prize will be given at the event. The trivia night will be emceed by WUIS public radio personality Jenna Dooley. Participants can register in advance or come to the event when the doors open.

Trivia night is one of many grassroots efforts by Nguyen’s Public Affairs Reporting classmates to raise scholarship funds in his memory. Nguyen, 34, was a talented journalist who considered no conversational detail trivial and who took a great interest in his friends and the state he covered for The Associated Press.

A native of Vietnam, Nguyen spent most of his life in California before moving to Springfield for his master’s degree. After graduating in 2008, Nguyen got married and worked as a newspaper reporter in California. He was actively pursuing his lifelong dream of teaching journalism.

More than $10,000 has been raised for the Vu Nguyen Memorial Scholarship, to be awarded annually to other aspiring journalists in the Public Affairs Reporting program at UIS. The PAR Class of 2008 has set $25,000 in endowed scholarship funds as its goal. This scholarship is administered through the University of Illinois at Springfield Foundation.

For more information on Nguyen and how to donate to the memorial scholarship, check out www.remembervu.webs.com.

If you can’t make it, you can donate online by clicking here.