Buzz! Who is
Amanda Hall?
FARMINGTON – The FedEx package finally arrived.
Eleven-year-old Amanda Hall is “Jeopardy!” bound.
She leaves April 1 for Washington, D.C., to tape a kids’ week show for the program on April 4, which is expected to air the week of May 3.
Hall became a finalist last June to appear on the show. She has been waiting all these months for a package to arrive to see if she’d be chosen.
On Monday, Hall was doing her math homework in the kitchen when her mother told her she should stop and handed her the package.
Hall said she looked at her mother, Lisa Ellrich, who’s never told her to stop doing her homework.
Then Hall looked at the package and read the return address.
“I started screaming and jumping up and down,” she said.
Then she ripped it open, careful not to destroy the papers inside.
When she read “We’re happy to invite you…”, Hall said she started screaming and jumping some more.
Now, she has started cramming in an attempt to know the questions that go with the answers during the game at the DAR Constitution Hall in the capital.
Her mother was notified March 5 that her daughter had been chosen to appear on the game but sworn to secrecy by “Jeopardy!” representatives. She told a few key people, Ellrich said, including the family and the principal of Cascade Brook School, just in case the package went to Hall’s school.
“Everybody that lived here knew except me!” Hall said.
The package arrived Monday while Hall was at school and Ellrich at work. Ellrich’s grandmother hid it in her room.
Hall said Tuesday that for the past 24 hours she has been studying the almanac and also trying to skim the encyclopedia.
She plans to go to the library everyday – and her book bag’s loaded with material.
“I’m going to watch ‘The Lord of the Rings’ this weekend,” she said.
Since the show is in Washington, she said she’ll study American history, the Constitution, states, presidents and more.
In between all this studying, she has to shop for two outfits. She had saved her lucky outfit from last year, but the dress code is restricted for the show.
Maybe a pair of black or khaki pants and a blue sweater or something else that’s appropriate, she said.
She’ll bring her lucky shamrock pin and wear her personally designed red tourmaline ring.
Her lucky thumb is working, she said, as she clicked a blue pen to demonstrate her agility.
No matter what, Hall will come home a winner. All three contestants in each of these games will win something: $1,000 third place, $2,000 second place and at least $10,000 first place.
“It’s exciting, very exciting,” Hall said.
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