Kameron Wolters was surprised when he came into work Monday. He wasn’t surprised when he answered his 1,000th toss-up question correctly during a Scholastic Bowl event this year. After all he had been working toward this his whole high school career. He wasn’t even surprised when the local paper interviewed him about it. But he was surprised when the article ended up on the front page and at how much Concordia Village residents, where Wolters works, took note of his achievement.
“It was crazy when I came in on Monday; The residents were super congratulatory,” said Wolters. “I took a resident’s order, they said congratulations, and we talked about it more. One resident offered to give me their copy of the paper and another cut the article out for me.”
The achievement that residents were so eager to celebrate with Wolters is one that has been years in the making for him. A high school senior at Pleasant Plains High School, Wolters has taken part in Scholastic Bowl since middle school. Earlier this year, he correctly answered his 1,000th toss-up question in a Scholastic Bowl match. The State Journal Register covered Wolters’ milestone.
Wolters started as a dining server at Concordia Village, a Lutheran Senior Services (LSS) Life Plan Community in Springfield, Illinois, last fall when the dining room was closed due to COVID-19, and servers became delivery people running food to residents’ homes. He enjoyed spending time getting to know his coworkers and put any down time waiting to deliver meals to good use by studying for Scholastic Bowl. But he is glad the dining room reopened this winter, so he has the opportunity to get to know the residents.
“The residents are fun to be around,” added Wolters. “They’ve been saying how much they appreciate my working there.”
Now the community is all tuned in to see where Wolters decides to college next year. As of yet, he hasn’t decided, but he assured that he’ll share the news with the residents when he decides. And when he does, they’ll be there to congratulate him.