Jeopardy! Winner Brendan Sargent Hosts ECF Trivia Night in Culver City

Brendan Sargent led Exceptional Children’s Foundation’s annual Trivia Night fundraiser on Aug. 22 at the Kayne Eras Center in Culver City, helping raise support for services for children and adults with disabilities. The event spotlighted ECF’s lifelong care model, from special education and therapy to employment, housing and community programs.

Why it matters: - Exceptional Children’s Foundation’s Trivia Night helped raise money for a service model that supports people with disabilities from childhood through adulthood. - The fundraiser highlighted the gap many families face after K–12 services end and the need for continued education, employment and community support. - ECF serves nearly 4,000 children, adults and families each year across Los Angeles County.

What happened: - Jeopardy! winner Brendan Sargent hosted ECF’s annual Trivia Night fundraiser on Saturday, Aug. 22, at the Kayne Eras Center in Culver City. - ECF’s Associates Board presented the event and Lucky Guess Trivia produced the evening. - Local residents, young professionals, workplace teams and ECF supporters gathered for three hours of trivia, food, drinks and competition. - Team The Jalapeno Lighties won first place and selected prize packages.

The details: - The Kayne Eras Center at 5350 Machado Road is ECF’s headquarters. - The campus houses ECF’s K–12 nonpublic school and therapeutic services for children and families. - ECF provides behavioral, speech and language, occupational, educational and mental health services tailored to individual needs. - Beyond childhood services, ECF offers employment and job training, residential support, fine arts, therapeutic services and community-based programs. - ECF’s programs are designed to help adults build skills, pursue work, develop relationships, participate in their communities and live as independently as possible. - Veronica Arteaga, ECF president and CEO, said graduation should not feel like stepping off a cliff for families raising a child with a disability. - Arteaga said ECF has spent 80 years building a lifespan of services and wants families to see a safe, purposeful and fulfilling future beyond K–12. - Sargent said his 12 years as a special education teacher made the fundraiser especially meaningful. - Sargent said he has seen firsthand how dedicated support can matter for students and families. - Maxine Moshay, ECF chief development officer, said Trivia Night gives people a way to see how ECF’s work extends across a lifetime.

Between the lines: - The event doubled as a community outreach effort for ECF, not just a fundraiser. - ECF’s Associates Board is trying to introduce a younger generation of Los Angeles supporters to the organization’s work. - Sargent’s role connected pop-culture trivia appeal with a disability-services mission, which likely helped broaden the event’s audience.

What's next: - ECF will continue using events like Trivia Night to support fundraising and community engagement. - The organization will keep promoting its continuum of services for children, adults and families across Los Angeles County. - More information is available in ECF’s announcement.

The bottom line: - ECF is raising money and visibility for a simple but hard problem: helping people with disabilities move from school-age services into adult lives with work, connection and independence.