East Greenwich to Host First-Annual Spelling Bee

In a world of autocorrect and spellcheck, knowing how to spell words is as vital a skill as ever.

Though students don’t need to keep thick dictionaries at arm’s reach anymore, being a good speller and studying the structure of words is the foundation for being a good writer, speaker and thinker.

In East Greenwich, it’s also a chance for students to pit their skills against each other in a fun, family-friendly atmosphere next month as the East Greenwich Education Foundation hosts its first annual community-wide spelling bee.

“We want to create a family activity that’s both fun and educationally-related and will draw the community together year after year,” said Rebecca Bliss, president of EGEF.

The event has been in the planning stages for months and is shaping up to be quite a hoot. The Archie R. Cole Middle School chorus will perform at the opening, State Rep. Anthony Giarrusso will be the master of ceremonies and about 55 middle and high school student volunteers will be pitching in as volunteers.

There will be six rounds for six different groups. And here’s where it gets interesting: not only will elementary, middle and high school students each be in their own group, PTG members, teachers and community leaders will be competing too.

Each round has six teams of three people and the culmination is a championship round where all the previous rounds’ winners face off for ultimate bragging rights.

Teams are currently being finalized and include East Greenwich’s Teacher of the Year, Beth Gorter, Principals, Beth Cauley, Cheryl Vaughn, and Neil Marcaccio, as well as a match up of Democratic versus Republican town leaders. There will also be an award for best team name and for the winner of a contest of Rhode Island trivia.

The words for the 2015 EGEF Spelling Bee were chosen using the 2015-2016 Scripps National Spelling Bee’s Consolidated Word Lists and the Scripps 2016 “Spell It” study guide. The Word Lists contain words divided into age-appropriate difficulty through an 8th grade level. The “Spell It” guide contains more difficult words and is intended by the Scripps National Spelling Bee to be used as a study guide for spelling bee champions. Because the “Spell It” words are more difficult, It was decided to use those as the source for the high school and adult teams.

Teams of 3 compete within their category in preliminary rounds. Winners from each preliminary round are based on the number of words correct (via tally of points) at the end of the round. Pronouncers say the word, define it, use it in a sentence and repeat it. After the pronouncer finishes, teams then have 20 seconds to collaborate and write the word on a whiteboard to present to the judges who determine if the answer is correct (one point) or not (zero points). The American Heritage Dictionary is the printed authority to be used by the judge(s) during the spelling bee. In the event of a tie, the winning team is chosen by single elimination, and if time becomes limited, then a speed elimination round is held where the final winning team is the first to write the word correctly.

The final round uses single elimination. If after 5 words there remains a tie, then a final word will be used in single speed round – the first team to write the word correctly is declared the 2015 EGEF Spelling Bee Champion.

The idea to hold a Spelling Bee came from a successful and long-standing event held in Needham, MA. Now its twenty-fourth year, the Needham Education Foundation Spelling Bee raises over $20,000 annually, and features eight rounds with over 150 spellers.

EGEF is looking for community partners to sponsor the Spelling Bee. While the goal of the first Bee is to build awareness of and interest in the event, ultimately, the annual Bee will serve as a fundraiser for the foundation. Current sponsors include Hill & Harbor Real Estate, Ocean State Laser and Aesthetics, The Savory Grape, Webster Bank, Dr. Christopher Pedorella, the East Greenwich Chamber of Commerce, RI Real Estate Services, Sarah Collins of Coleman Realtors, Therese Vezeridis, Sean Todd, the Barron family, and Dave’s Marketplace.

Light refreshments provided by Wild Harvest, Silver Spoons Bakery, Showcase Cinemas, Dunkin Donuts, and Four Brothers Pizza.

The event will be held Nov. 8 at 4:30 p.m. in the East Greenwich High School Gymnasium.

For more information contact info@egefri.org.