The Hubbard teen finished third and second in the last two Vindicator bees.

March 9, 2008 at 12:20a.m.

HUBBARD — Hanna Gerdes, at just 14, is an old hand at spelling bees.

She’s been a school champion and participated in three Vindicator Regional Spelling Bees in the past and will mark her fourth and final appearance at The Vindicator’s 75th annual bee Saturday in the Chestnut Room of Kilcawley Center at Youngstown State University.

The regional bee is part of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and contest rules prevent school participants from competing beyond the eighth grade.

Hanna, who is being home-schooled this year, is an eighth-grader.

She’s done well at the regional, finishing third in 2006 and second last year.

She’ll be facing last year’s winner, John Umble, again this year. He’s Willow Creek Learning Center’s champion again, and Hanna said she’s spoken with him about the national event.

“He’s very nice and helpful,” she said.

It was her father, Robert, who got her interested in spelling, and a spelling teacher, Pat Vagnarelli, at the Montessori School of the Mahoning Valley Inc., Youngstown, who really got her involved, she said. Hannah was the Montessori school champion in 2003 and 2006.

She attended St. Patrick School in Hubbard last year and won that school’s bee to compete in The Vindicator event again.

This year, she is being home-schooled, and she intends to enroll at Ursuline High School next year where an older brother and sister are enrolled.

Her mother, Tena, said it is Hanna’s father who really works with her on spelling.

Hannah takes the bee seriously, downloading a list of spelling words from the Scripps Web site and creating her own spelling binder from which to study.

She also makes note cards on words of interest to add to the binder, and her father quizzes her on them. Hannah said she also makes a list of interesting words she comes across in books.

“I actually enjoy doing that,” she said.

“We try to go over words every night,” her father said, adding that they spend at least 30 minutes a night working on spelling, sometimes more.

Robert Gerdes has a bit of spelling bee history of his own, having won the city bee in Conneaut, Ohio, when he was in the sixth grade in the early 1970s.

He attributes Hannah’s spelling skills to an early ability to read, noting that she was reading books before she entered kindergarten.

Tena Gerdes said they chose to home-school Hannah this year to take advantage of the flexible schedule it offers.

That enabled her to undertake a mission trip with her father, an optometrist, with Volunteers Optometric Services to Humanity, a nine-day journey to Nicaragua in January to provide vision care to people in an underdeveloped area, Tena Gerdes said.

Hannah got to do distance acuity measurements for the group.

Spelling isn’t Hannah’s only interest. She’s involved in the national MathCounts competition and cross-country running. She loves to read, go to summer camp and participate in her church youth group.

She also plays piano and takes both ballet and baton classes.

gwin@vindy.com