MIDDLETOWN, Penn.–– Vizo Financial’s annual Hot Dog Eating Contest raised a record $7,500 for CMN Hospitals at Penn State Children’s Hospital in Hershey, Penn., while XDI has announced the winners of its virtual trivia contest, which also raised funds for charity.
Conducted virtually for the first time, Vizo’s hot dog eating contest included nine contestants and 22 sponsors and was held via Zoom.
The event began with remarks from CMN Hospitals representative Elizabeth Wilson, who works with Penn State Children’s Hospital. In addition, Miracle Child, Joella, and her mother, Janette, joined the festivities and shared their CMN Hospitals story.
The contest was broken out to include a men’s (six contestants) and women’s competition (three contestants). The contestants included Greg Cosgrove of Utilities Employees CU; Jay Edmiston of Timberland FCU; Darysha Gomez of Belco Community CU; Mike Heider of Vizo Financial; Rodney May of Vizo Financial; Justina Mikalik of Vizo Financial; Toni Montgomery of Blue Chip FCU; Corey Mosby of Blue Chip FCU, and Aaron Mowery of Belco Community CU.
Justina Mikalik from Vizo Financial won the women’s competition, consuming six hot dogs. Aaron Mowery from Belco Community CU won the men’s competition, consuming 5.5 hot dogs.
Trivia Contest Raises Funds
Separately, in San DiegoXpress Data, Inc. (XDI) recently held a successful virtual Trivia Challenge for charity. This event, which was facilitated by TriviaHub via Zoom, included credit union employees from across the U.S. who answered questions on pop culture, history, sports, art, chili, and more.
The virtual charity event replaced XDI’s previous annual in-person charity events, XDI’s Chili Challenge and XDI’s Cornhole Challenge, but “the positive results were exactly the same: $10,000 was donated to worthwhile causes,” the company said.
“While we missed seeing everyone in person in San Diego this year, I am very pleased that we were still able to put on a fun and well attended fundraiser,” said CEO Mike Cooper. “I would like to say thanks to all of the credit unions that took part and to our internal XDI team for coming up with this creative way to keep our charity event alive and well during these unique times.”
Added Todd Kern, chief marketing officer at Frontwave Credit Union and one of the members of the winning trivia team, “It is so great to be a part of the credit union industry where partners like XDI organize an annual event for credit union management and staff to get together from across the country to come together for a day of fun, friendly competition that is for a great cause - it really brings the industry and our communities together!”
This year’s first-place team – The Smarty Pints – chose to donate its $5,000 to Children’s Miracle Network. The second and third place teams – YY4U and COVIDiots – chose Feeding America as the fortunate recipient of their combined $5,000 in prize money.