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Vindicator spelling bee winner anticipates national experience
By HAROLD GWIN
POLAND
David Miglets believes his daughter has as good a chance as anyone to win the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
“You’ve got to believe. If you think you can do it, that’s half the battle,” he said.
Daughter Julia is the winner of The Vindicator’s 77th Regional Spelling Bee in March, earning the chance to participate in the national event set for June 2-4 in Washington, D.C.
She knows that winning the National Bee is extremely difficult.
“Odds are, I won’t win,” she said realistically, adding that she’s going for the overall experience.
She was in Washington on a school trip just a few weeks ago, but she’s eager to go back to see the sites.
“We want to go to the Smithsonian,” said Laura Miglets, her mother.
Julia said she also wants to see the White House again.
She’s still studying for the big event, noting that her mother helps her by giving her words to spell from a list provided by the bee.
The bee also gave her a dictionary with the warning that ‘‘pretty much anything goes,” Laura Miglets said.
She’s received some advice from a couple of previous Vindicator bee winners.
Lauren Johnson, who was the 2006 regional winner and once was Julia’s baby sitter, and John Umble, who won both the 2007 and 2009 regional bees, have told her what to expect.
She feels prepared, though she admits she really doesn’t like being on stage in front of a crowd.
Still, she’s had some extensive local experience at that, having participated in the regional event four times, finishing third in both 2008 and 2009 before winning this year.
“I guess I was stunned but delighted that she’d finally won after all that hard work,” David Miglets said.
Julia, 13, is in the eighth grade at Springfield Intermediate School and said the school has been very supportive.
“They talk about it a lot,” she said, noting the school gave her a flash drive for her computer, an umbrella, a shirt and a glass candy dish.
She also received recognition at a school board meeting.
The support goes beyond that.
“I get cards from people I don’t even know,” Julia said, including one from the 1940 winner of The Vindicator bee who said she will be thinking of Julia and wishing her the best.
The trip to Washington will be a family affair.
In addition to mom and dad, older sister Melanie, younger brother Mitchell and her grandmother and grandfather will make the trip to support Julia.