Spelling bee digest

The Vindicator Spelling Bee 2010

Gallery

Fewer words

It took a list of 313 words to determine the winner of the 2009 Vindicator Regional Spelling Bee. The task was accomplished with a much-shorter list for the 2010 event Saturday. It took just 235 words to wrap up the contest, with Julia Miglets, representing Springfield Intermediate School, being named grand champion.

66 spellers

A total of 66 individual school champion spellers were scheduled to participate in the bee on the Youngstown State University campus. Three didn’t make it. One child was reported to have missed the contest because his mother went into labor five hours before the start of the bee.

Many first-timers

Most of the 25 boys and 38 girls in the competition were in the event for the first time, including Lauren Ann Ritz of Willow Creek Learning Center, who finished as runner-up. Seven spellers participated for a second time, and three, including this year’s grand champion, Julia Miglets, were experiencing their third or fourth appearance. It was Julia’s fourth.

Packed house

As always, the event in YSU’s Kilcawley Center drew a packed house of family and supporters for the bee contestants. The crowd was quiet and attentive — there were only two cell-phone interruptions in the back of the room — and applauded each child’s performance, whether they spelled their words correctly or not.

Participant gifts

Every contestant received a Merriam-Webster 11th Edition Collegiate Dictionary, as well as a Vindicator Spelling Bee T-shirt, a school champion certificate and other mementos.

Winner’s gifts

The grand champion received an all-expense paid trip to Washington, D.C., to participate in the Scripps National Spelling Bee, compliments of The Vindicator. The winner also receives a first-place trophy and a Grand Champion Certificate, a $100 U.S. Savings Bond from both the Rotary Club of Youngstown and the Downtown Kiwanis Club, a $150 Barnes and Noble gift certificate from the Downtown Kiwanis Club, a copy of “These Hundred Years — A Chronicle of the Twentieth Century” from The Vindicator, the $100 U.S. Savings Bond from the Samuel Louis Sugarman Award, Webster’s Third New International Dictionary with a one-year subscription to Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged online site, a one-year subscription to Britannica Online Student Edition from Encyclopedia Britannica and a floral arrangement from Burkland Flowers.

Runner-up gifts

The runner-up received a Merriam-Webster’s 11th Collegiate Dictionary, a T-shirt and school champion certificate, a second-place trophy and second-place certificate, a $50 U.S. Savings Bond and a $75 Barnes and Noble gift certificate from the Downtown Kiwanis Club, a $20 Amazon.com gift certificate, a one-year subscription for a Britannica Online Student Edition from Encyclopedia Britannica and a copy of “These Hundred Years — A Chronicle of the Twentieth Century” from The Vindicator.

— Staff writer Harold Gwin