Wellsville 8th-grader wins News Spelling Bee
Victor set to compete in D. C. national finals
Despite our computer spell-checker era, for the first time in recent memory, the 82nd annual Buffalo News Spelling Bee had a tie of two perfect written tests in the lead-up to Sunday’s competition.
Both Kevin Drew, an eighth-grader from Wellsville’s Northview School, and Soumitri Barua, an eighth-grader from Olean Middle School, learned they got no less than 100 percent on their tests at the conclusion of the bee held at the Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society Museum auditorium, each winning a $25 cash award.
But Kevin emerged as the big winner of Sunday’s bee as he most confidently and correctly spelled “recrement,” which means “superfluous matter separated from that which is useful.” It certainly wasn’t a superfluous word in this spelling bee.
Kevin and an adult escort will now fly Southwest Airlines on an all-expense paid trip to Washington, D. C., to compete in the national finals the week of May 24. As the champion, he also won yet another $100 cash award, $50 in expense money for his trip and an engraved pen-and-pencil set for jotting down those difficult-to-spell words.
Kevin knows how to spell success. After his win, he said his triumph was simply a matter of good, old-school “studying hard.”
The next top four finishers received an engraved pen-and-pencil set along with these cash prizes: second, $75; third, $50; fourth, $35; fifth, $25. They were: runner-up Hannah Messerschmidt, an eighth-grader at West Seneca Grace LEAH Homeschool; William Grimble, third, of grade 8 at Albion Middle School. Also, two sixth-graders admirably battled the older eighth-graders: William Erdman, of Williamsville’s SS. Peter&Paul School who came in fourth, and Audrey Wagner, of Wilson Middle School, who placed fifth.
The News, in cooperation with area schools, sponsors the spelling bee for sixth-, seventh-and eighth-grade pupils from Erie, Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Genesee, Livingston, Niagara, Orleans and Wyoming counties and the City of Buffalo.
Other prizes given out at the oral competition included: Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged; the Samuel Louis Sugarman Award, a $100 Series EE U. S. Savings Bond from Jay Sugarman; Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition; six one-year subscriptions to Encyclopaedia Britannica Online; gift certificates from Amazon.com and gifts from the Scripps National Spelling Bee and The Buffalo News. All champions from schools registered in the 2009 Buffalo News Spelling Bee received a dictionary, thesaurus or other reference book from The News, with a certificate of merit for each school runner-up.
Pronouncer for the bee was Cynthia Pearson, retired English teacher from South Park High School. Judges were Kathleen Kreis, former director of English and library services for the Buffalo Public Schools; Ann Laudisio, principal at Maplemere Elementary School; and Deborah Patti, spelling bee coordinator for The News. Kreis and Pearson prepared both the written and oral tests.
One word all the finalists knew how to spell — “orthography,” which means correct spelling.
Other 2009 spelling bee finalists, their grades and schools were:
Anna Magavern, sixth-grader at Nichols School.
Laura Woods, eighth-grader at Fredonia Middle School.
Jessica Quaranto, eighth-grader at Pembroke Junior Senior High School.
Rachel Curtis, sixth-grader at Livonia Intermediate School.
Amanda Whelan, sixth-grader at Lancaster’s William Street School.
Joshu Creel, eighth-grader at Park School of Buffalo.
Anne Pivarunas, eighth-grader at Elma’s Children of Mary Homeschool.
Agnes Santiano, sixth-grader at West Seneca Queen of Heaven School.
Keila Williams, eighth-grader at Amherst Middle School.
Grady Hare, eighth-grader at Williamsville’s Mill Middle School.
Rebecca Sternberg, eighth-grader at Williamsville’s Heim Middle School.
Lewis Lenard, eighth-grader at Amherst’s Kadimah School.
Lucas Przybyla, sixth-grader at Springbrook’s St. Vincent dePaul School.
Megan Keib, eighth-grader at Wellsville Middle School.
Log into MyBuffalo to post a comment
MyBuffalo is the new social network from Buffalo.com. Your MyBuffalo account lets you comment on and rate stories at buffalonews.com. You can also head over to mybuffalo.com to share your blog posts, stories, photos, and videos with the community. Join now or learn more.
Reader comments