Did you hear the buzz?

The Third Annual Community Spelling Bee took place on Friday, October 23^rd, at the Theater of the Performing Arts, at the Learning Corridor.  Over 300 boisterous spectators, made up of team supporters, friends and Bee sponsors watched the lively competition taking place on the stage.  Even the Bulldog mascot from Bulkeley High School came to cheer on the Bulkeley team of spellers!

Thirty-four teams, divided into 6 swarms, competed and put in their best efforts to win the prizes and the trophy for best spellers.  Prizes were also awarded to the teams with the best costumes and most team spirit.  Dressed in togas and laurel wreaths, The Gladiators from the Greater Hartford Classical Magnet School were prepared to defend the title as best spelling team.

John Motley, in his role as King of the Hive, opened the evening by reading the rules and immediately using his regal authority to make one change:  spelling teams would be required to write down each word in 20 seconds, not 30 seconds as stated in the program.  Dr. Steven Adamowski, the Official Timekeeper, took his job seriously by giving a 5 second warning and ringing the bell as instructed by the King, 10 seconds sooner than in the prior years.

Teams paraded onto the stage in their assigned swarms and valiantly used their word power to come up with the correct spelling of the words called out by the Chief Justice of the Honey Bee Court, Rob Kyff.  The other judges for the Bee were Ada Miranda, Chair of the Board of Education, Stan Simpson, Director of the Journalism and Media Academy at Weaver High School, and Vivian Rivera-Jeffrey, 2009 Teacher of the Year.

At the end of the sixth swarm (or round) the winning team from each of the swarms was invited back to compete in the final round.

In the end, The Gladiators defeated their opponents in the seventh and final round of the Bee.  The word that stumped the three other teams vying for the title best spellers was:  ophthalmologist.

The Super Women from Quest – Leadership Greater Hartford won for best costume and the team from Everybody Wins! CT, Buzz Word, won for best team spirit.

Thank you to all of the teams!  We appreciated your efforts in prepping for the Bee, your clever team names and costumes! 

Once again,we thank our many sponsors and donors for helping us reach our fundraising goal.

Thank you to the Community Spelling Bee Committee and the Bee “Officials” for their time and effort in helping to create a evening to celebrate learning and have a good time!

Finally, a shout out to the women of the Trinity College Kappa Kappa Gamma Sorority who helped to make the Bee run smoothly.

Look to this site in the near future for information about next year’s Community Spelling Bee!

“We have been honored and blessed to have shared in the lexophilic competition that Achieve Hartford! has now made into a tradition for the Greater Hartford Community at-large.  Sharing in the “buzz” of word celebration is a wonderful way to get students and adults alike excited about expanding our vocabulary and marvelling at the idiosyncrasies of the English language!”  Kate Howard-Bender, Member of the Gladiators spelling bee team.

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