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Hilary Caws-Elwitt, resident of Friendsville and Systems Librarian, appeared on the game show "Jeopardy!" on April 22nd. Thanks to Mike Ognosky and the Montrose Area High School, a watching party was held at the high school library. About 40 people attended, and donations, which are still coming in, have brought in over $500 for the Library and Historical Society. "This is the closest I'll get to my 15 minutes of fame," says Hilary, "and I wanted to leverage it to benefit our library system, which has been struggling with state budget cuts." WBRE did a segment on Hilary's appearance, with library footage. You can also read Hilary's blog post about the experience.

Hilary's road to Jeopardy has been a long one. She first applied in the early 1990s, when it was a paper test given outside of Los Angeles only when the Jeopardy team went on the road. "I went to the Binghamton TV station with my husband Jonathan, and neither of us even passed the 10 question screening test!" The advent of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" and its phone game, which allowed potential contestants to apply from anywhere, reawakened her interest in quiz shows. "Millionaire never called, but I hoped someday to redeem myself with Jeopardy--at least to get into the contestant pool." Jeopardy now offers an online test every January. In 2008, she got an email asking if she could attend an audition in New York City. "The audition process was so much fun--we got to play a mock game complete with the buzzer."

After the audition, Hilary had made it into the contestant pool, but many people never get a call during the 18 months they stay in the pool. "People who have been trying to get on Jeopardy and have been in the pool many times joke about getting waterlogged!" Her 18 month period expired in November. "I figured I would take the test in January and hope to get an audition invitation again. Instead, out of the blue I got a call in mid-January asking if I could get to Los Angeles on February 2nd and 3rd!" Five shows are taped each day. Contestants must pay their own expenses, but they do get a special "Jeopardy rate" at a hotel. "Jonathan and I decided to turn it into a week's vacation--if you're going to fly all that way, it only makes sense, and it was a great time to get away from the cold."

Hilary came in second and did not win her game, but she says "It was quite dramatic, and almost everything I wanted to happen did happen. It's been the experience of a lifetime!"