Lillian Farah, Ashley Kutzer, Audrey Lassen and Charlotte Scanlan
For the fifteenth year, enthusiastic spellers and their families filled the Sheehan cafetorium last week as fifty-two teams of third, fourth and fifth graders eagerly waited to demonstrate their spelling abilities. The Westwood Educational Foundation 15th Annual Children’s Spelling Bee has become an annual tradition and challenges the upper elementary grade students to reach new spelling heights. Wearing vibrant and creative team costumes, these determined spellers impressed the crowd by competently spelling words that challenged adults in the audience. Each of the 194 children involved in the Bee should be congratulated for wanting to participate, for the effort exhibited in preparing for the competition and for trying their best.
On Wednesday, March 2 sixteen fourth grade teams opened the Bee, setting the standard by spelling words like “aristocracy”, “allegory”, “protocol”, and “juggernaut”. The final 4th grade round came down to the Marvelous Marvins (Isabelle Medina, Madeline Medina, Philip Bligh and Hannah Jordanides) and the Sheehan Super Spellers (Josh Morris, Ben Morris, Justin O’Dwyer and Lauren Nelson) who needed to spell fifteen words before the Marvelous Marvins were victorious with “dimension”. Last year these same two teams were involved in the final round when they were in third grade. When asked why they participate in the Bee, team members said “it’s fun to study”, “it’s good to know how to spell” and “it’s fun doing it”.
Isabelle Medina, Philip Bligh, Hannah Jordanides, Madeline Medina
The fifth grade rounds followed, involving thirteen teams in a spirited display of spelling skill. The words “gregarious”, “receipt”, “guillotine”, “nemesis” and “hippopotamus” didn’t stop team members. The final 5th grade round involved the Solar Power Spellers (Katie Webster, Rose Cautela, Marissa Solomon and Smita Chatterjee) versus the Smarty Pants (Olivia Hess, Anabel Sattler, Maillane Werner, and Mairead Walsh). The teams spelled fourteen words before the Solar Power Spellers emerged victorious with the word “charlatan”.
The following afternoon, twenty-three third grade teams continued the quest for spelling mastery. Competently deflecting words such as “karaoke”, “graffiti”, “caffeine”, and “raspberry”, the Fantastic Four (Audrey Lassen, Charlotte Scanlan, Ashley Kutzer, and Lillian Farah) went into the final round against The Buzzer Beaters (Benjamin Linehan, Rowan Curtin and Tiernan Goss). The word “vacuum” was the Fantastic Four’s winning word.
WEF conducts the Spelling Bee as part of its mission to promote community spirit through lifelong enrichment opportunities for all members of the Westwood Community. This is accomplished by raising funds and returning them to the community in the form of educational grants. Since inception in 1991, WEF has returned over $750,000 to the community in grants for the schools, library, senior center, police, fire and other organizations. WEF extends a special thanks to the spelling bee lead sponsor, Roche Brothers, for their continued generosity and support in helping WEF execute its mission.
