TRENTON -- Some of the games were "fixed" and George Washington wore a hair extension, but a belief that "the show must go on" infused the Patriot Quiz Games at the New Jersey State Museum Auditorium yesterday as participants took turns testing their knowledge of American history.
Part of a six-day Patriots' Week celebrating Trenton's role in the American Revolution, the games went on as scheduled despite remnants of the weekend snowstorm that resulted in cancellation or rescheduling of a series of activities designed by the Trenton Downtown Association to promote tourism.
A resourceful Rick Weiss, a Trenton Central High School history teacher, led a series of on-stage games fashioned after television's "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?," "To Tell the Truth," and even that old standby, bingo, working with an audience of only about three dozen adults and children whose spirit filled the auditorium with a much larger presence.
Rok Cerne Jr., 11, of Lakewood, volunteered to play "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" as Weiss pitched questions to him such as, "What was the name of George Washington's estate? A. King's Dominion; B. Happy Valley or C. Mount Vernon?"
For Cerne, the answer, Mount Vernon, came a lot more easily than the correct "fact or fiction" answer to the statement "George Washington's height was 6 feet 3 inches." When Cerne did not know the right answer for that question, Weiss told him there was a 50-50 clause that allowed someone in the audience to eliminate one of the answers. When the volunteer told Cerne that "false" could be eliminated, the boy correctly answered "fact" and everyone in the room learned that Washington was a tall guy.
There was no million dollar prize, Weiss explained, because Gov. Chris Christie had cut the budget, but Cerne was awarded a lottery ticket with a maximum payout of $30,000. The boy held on tight to the ticket as he joined his father, Rok Sr., and sister Roksana, 10, in the audience.
Weiss was not above giving some of the on-stage participants a few nudges toward the correct answers. But it was all in good fun, with a bit of adapting to the circumstances thrown in for good measure. And the adapting came early when Weiss couldn't get enough school-age children on stage for a "Pep Squad" big enough to hold all the individual letters that spell out "Washington."
That's where Ankita Mohan of Afton School in Newtown, Pa., came in handy. She held the letters "O" and "N" to complete the word. With her father, Ram, proudly taking photos from the audience, the 11-year-old later explained she came to the event "to learn something more about her country."
So did amateur history buffs Sandy and Paul Dann of Brooklyn, N.Y., who made the trek to Trenton for a four-day stay in the city centered on Patriots' Week activities.
"Last year we went to the crossing of the Delaware enactment and heard about Patriots' Week, so we decided to come this year,'' said Dann, an accountant.
His wife of 45 years, Sandy, said they didn't mind being snowed in one night at the Marriott, where they enjoyed the people and the food.
"We learned a lot about the Battle of Trenton,'' said Dann.
"We learned how cold it was during the crossing of the Delaware,'' said his wife.
"And we learned how nice the people of Trenton are,'' Dann concluded.
Patriots' Week will continue through Friday, with Monday bus tours rescheduled for Thursday. The whole schedule can be found at www.patriotsweek.com.
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