ChambersFest includes local Jeopardy!

July 22, 2009|By JENNIFER FITCH

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. -- While staying in Franklin County in 1859, this visitor used the alias Isaac Smith.

The Final Jeopardy! clue in a Franklin County, Pa., version of the game proved less difficult than many other prompts for three teams competing Wednesday evening in Chambersburg.

All correctly answered "Who is John Brown?"

"Our backup answer was Nellie Fox," Bill Gour quipped.

Gour, part of the winning team "The Explorers," was referring to several questions in the "baseball" and "award-winners" categories that dealt with the accomplishments of Fox, a former Chicago White Sox second baseman from St. Thomas, Pa.

Categories ranged from local landmarks to "famous people named Ben" in the new event made part of ChambersFest, a 15-day festival celebrating the rebirth of Chambersburg. Two teams won donations to the charities of their choice.

Members of "The Explorers" said their individual knowledge bases made for a winning combination.

"Our group was pretty-well primed to answer the history questions and the Chamber of Commerce ones," Chris Frisby said.

Frisby joined his colleagues from the Franklin County Visitors Bureau, Janet Pollard and Mary Harris, as well as Gour, who is director of the Greencastle-Antrim Chamber of Commerce. Frisby and Gour gave Harris credit for answering a number of questions.

"I was surprised I knew the answers," she said.

"Ever since I signed up I've been meaning to study and I haven't," Gour said. However, he fared well on history questions despite living much of his life not in Franklin County, but in Montreal.

The Explorers selected the Franklin County Therapeutic Riding Center as the recipient of their $225 prize. Runners-up "The Punishers," from Franklin County Jail, selected the Shippensburg University Foundation to receive $100.

One clue that stumped all the teams asked for the Chambersburg writer who won a 1967 Pulitzer Prize for reporting of a kidnapping in Shade Gap, Pa.

"You know, I even saw the movie," Gour said, ticking off a list of actors, but not writer Bob Cox. He joked that the answer might be Nellie Fox.

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