By Greg Forester, Staff Writer
Are you smarter than a second-grader?
That’s what some parents had a chance to learn Thursday at Community Park Elementary School where a group of second-graders and their teachers held a game show and fundraiser as part of the group’s ongoing efforts in performing community service.
The game show, which was preceded by a bake sale and other activities, pit a group of seven or eight parents against teams of the second-graders in what amounted to a hybrid of the game shows “Jeopardy” and “Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?”
Questions about a variety of elementary school topics — science, social studies, math and language arts — were broken down into point categories with point values corresponding to more difficult questions.
Contestants faced off and put their brains to work on questions like what are the body parts of an insect and what number president is U.S. President Barack Obama — the nation’s 44th — in front of a capacity crowd in the school’s auditorium.
To ensure the participation of all the children, single parents took on groups of second-grade students, according to Kerri Gottesman, a resource room teacher at Community Park School, who has been assisting the students with their efforts.
Proceeds from the events will go to Princeton’s SAVE animal shelter, according to Ms. Gottesman.
”The parents are very happy with this,” Ms. Gottesman said.
The event is the latest effort by the 20-student service team, which has dedicated its efforts to raising awareness about the importance of community service work in the Princeton area.
The community service focus was not the brainchild of teachers or school staff, but of the children’s interest in service projects.
Some of the children told Ms. Gottesman and co-teacher Danielle Ring they wanted to perform community service this year.
”The effort was inspired by the interests of the kids,” Ms. Gottesman said.
The kids already have done a variety of activities, including reading to the school’s kindergartners and first-graders, collecting donated infant supplies for the Children’s Home Society and putting up flyers throughout the school, pushing the benefit of community service.
Students who helped with the infant supplies drive also had a chance to meet one of the foster mothers and two babies set to benefit from the students’ efforts.
At one point, the kids even took on a journalistic role in their efforts.
They traveled around the school polling faculty and staff about community service experience, raising awareness about good works in the community and developing ideas for future projects.

