VonThun and Rutgers join for themed corn maze

RU ready for fall?

By: Davy James – Staff Writer
Halloween is still months away, but VonThun Farms is hard at work preparing for the fall season and will open their giant corn maze to the public in mid-September.
Through a partnership with the Rutgers University Athletic Department, "The Rutgers Football Corn MAiZE" at VonThun Farms will put a new twist on the annual maze this year.
"It’s really going to be something special," said Cindy VonThun, who is coordinating the maze for Von Thun Farms. "It’s one of those things where as an adult you can be a kid and share in the excitement and as a kid you go running through the maze."
VonThun Farms is working with an Illinois-based company to design the maze, which will be highly interactive with a Rutgers football theme. Clues for navigating the maze will be displayed on large decorated footballs and numbered signs throughout the maze, along with trivia questions that give the proper directions through the maze if answered correctly.
In addition, participants can send a text message asking for help if they can’t quite figure out where to go and will get a response to help them figure out the correct path.
"This is a really cool thing where you send a text with the number of one of the corn stations located in the maze and you get back a text with a clue about where to turn," Ms. VonThun said. "Or people can just try and go through without any help, but the maze will be interactive and a lot of fun.
Located throughout the maze will also be riddles called "corn-undrums" to help people figure out the correct route.
Ms. VonThun said the 3-mile long maze usually takes about an hour to complete, depending how much help people want along the way.
Ms. VonThun said her family reached out to Rutgers to bring about the partnership and she said it’s made possible by the university’s willingness to support local agriculture. Although players from the Rutgers University football team cannot make an appearance at the maze due to NCAA rules, Ms. VonThun said the university’s Agriculture Department, Athletic Department and football head coach Greg Schiano are fully behind the collaboration.
"They’ve been a big part of what we’re doing," she said.
The opening of the maze is scheduled for Sept. 18. Other scheduled events for the fall include the Apple Festival on Sept. 25 and 26, Rutgers weekend on Oct. 2 and 3, and Fall Festival weekend scheduled for Oct. 9 and 10, among other scheduled events. VonThun Farms also welcomes schools, youth groups, and other organizations to get involved with the maze as a means for fundraising.
The "The Rutgers Football Corn MAiZE" at VonThun Farms is open from Sept. 18 through Oct. 31, on weekdays from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. and on weekends from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets to the maze cost $8. VonThun Farms is located at 519 Ridge Road in Monmouth Junction.
For more information visit www.vonthunfarms.com.