Valley youth wins state spelling bee

February 18, 2007

By LEILA KHEIRY/Frontiersman

PALMER - Valley eighth-grader Forrest Lamb isn't sure which his official winning word was: &#8220vituperative” or &#8220artesian.” It probably doesn't matter, either, since knowing both launched him from the final round of the state spelling bee to his first-place win Friday, ensuring him a trip to the national spelling bee in Washington, D.C., in May.

Forrest, a student at Academy Charter School, said Friday afternoon that he got lucky. Studying thousands of words probably also helped, but he was given a lot of words that he knew - or at least had seen - which gave him an edge over his approximately 140 competitors in the two-day state competition in Anchorage.

Out of those, he was number 138, which meant he had to sit, wait and worry while nearly everyone else went before him.

&#8220When I'm spelling the words, I'm less nervous” than during the wait, he said. &#8220I know what I'm up against.”

At one point, Forrest said, he benefited from an unlikely source: his sister. She had recently made fried plantains for a school project, he said, and he saw the recipe on the counter. During one of the spelling bee rounds, he was given the word &#8220plantain.”

&#8220I wouldn't have known it otherwise,” he said.

Forrest said he has liked spelling for a while, but not grammar.

&#8220Maybe I don't like it when things are spelled wrong,” he said. &#8220I've always been naturally good at it.”

Even with that natural talent, though, Forrest said he was a little surprised at the end result.

&#8220I didn't expect to win,” he said. &#8220I didn't expect to make it to the second day, because I never had that much luck with spelling bees.”

The winning moment wasn't very dramatic, he said.

&#8220When you see a movie (and someone wins), they have all that intense music,” he said. &#8220It's not like that.”

He spelled his final two words right, the judges said &#8220correct,” and the audience was kinda quiet, he said. Then there was some applause, and it was over.

His mother, Erin Lamb, was in the audience, and said the experience was a little nerve-wracking for her, especially the final couple of rounds.

She said parents in the audience were all really engaged in the process from the very beginning, rooting for each child, moaning quietly in unison at some of the harder words, and spelling in their heads along with the kids on stage. Some of the parents brought books, expecting to be bored, she said, but they never cracked the cover.

Erin Lamb said Forrest and a friend started studying in September for bee season. Forrest had this year's official spelling bee book memorized by December, she said, and he moved on to the SAT spelling list.

That strategy seemed to work in his favor, said Erin Lamb, because he was given a few words Thursday and Friday from the SAT list.

&#8220A lot of it, in spelling bees, it's just the luck of the word,” she said. &#8220He was very fortunate with the words that he got.”

To get to the state bee, Forrest first won his school spelling bee. ACS Principal Barbara Gerard said Friday that the battle for the school winner was huge.

&#8220It was down to two boys who had both memorized all 3,000 words in the book,” she said. &#8220It just went on and on.”

Gerard said she's thrilled one of her students made top honors at the bee.

&#8220I had a really good feeling that Forrest would do well,” she said. &#8220He's a natural at the whole spelling process. I'm sure we're going to have a big celebration when they get back.”

Now that the state bee is behind him, Forrest is looking ahead to the national competition in May.

&#8220I'm going to have to study a lot more,” he said, which he isn't looking forward to. &#8220But I'm not going to pass up the opportunity.”

As an eighth-grader, this is the last year Forrest qualifies for the national bee.

Leila Kheiry can be reached at 357-2270 or leila.kheiry@ frontiersman.com.