Annual Spelling Bee brings F-U-N for adults

Palms sweaty, hearts racing, words jumbling. It must have been in anticipation for the 16th annual Adult Spelling Bee, held on July 18 at the Wasilla Public Library.

“It’s pretty friendly competition, a very popular event. People look forward to it every year, and contestants are pretty excited to participate,” said Sarah Sexton, who helped moderate the event.

The rules for the spelling bee were slightly different than what students are used to. First and foremost, there is no need for nerves as people don’t stand on a stage to spell the words orally. Instead, participants are given notecards and the chance to write out the words.

“It’s pretty typical of most spelling bees, you can get pronunciations, a sentence, and it’s all written, which cuts down on the pressure,” said Sexton,

After the word is given, contestants had the opportunity to ask for the definition and part of speech, as well as a sentence. Once the participants wrote out the word, the cards were collected and anyone with misspelled words were eliminated.

“We are so excited to get to do this,” said first-time participant Molly Smedley, who says her family is usually out dip-netting this time of year. “We always go to Kenai, so we can’t usually make it, but this year it worked out.” Smedley’s daughter, Marisol, said she wasn’t nervous, having extensive practice after having participated in her share of spelling bees while in school. “I even made it to the state spelling bee when I was in 7th grade. I’m ready.”

“It’s a lot of fun,” said returning speller Laurel Warner, who had made it to second place in previous spelling bees. “I’ve always been a really good speller. I was the annoying kid correcting my teacher’s spelling.” She said that growing up, she doesn’t remember her school having spelling bees, but became familiar with complicated words from reading a lot as a child, as well as from family members who would use “really big words.”

As for tricks to help remember the correct spelling of words, she says that she would split words up into smaller parts to remember, something Marisol also uses.

“I would split the words up, learn the smaller pieces then put them together.”

This year’s theme was “Grown Up Words,” and the words were associated with various stages and terms used in growing plants and vegetables. “Compost,” “mound,” “chlorophyll,” and “deciduous” were just a few of the words the stymied the spellers.

The spelling bee, slated for 20 rounds, crowned a winner in the 17th round when first-time contestant Susan Skvorc was the last one standing, taking home $100 prize. Traci Sanders came in second, winning a gift card to Nonna’s Osteria.

Meanwhile, spellers are already gearing up for next year’s B-E-E.