Sometimes it pays to read slowly enough to encounter a word you don’t understand and look it up.
Sanya Nadeem, a 12-year-old seventh-grader at Eleanor Johnson School in Walpole, would agree.
“I was reading something and came across the word ‘curmudgeon’ and it was such a funny-sounding word I had to look it up,” she said. “I saw that it meant a grouchy person.”
Lo and behold, the word “curmudgeon” came up in the Scripps Regional Spelling Bee, which was held Tuesday in an online format. Nadeem was the winner, and to do that she had to run the table of 40 words to spell, and 10 more vocabulary words.
“I think having seen the word, and having looked it up, helped me win,” said Nadeem. “I don’t know if I’d been able to spell it right if I hadn’t.”
After canceling the event last year, which would have occurred shortly after the coronavirus pandemic exploded across the country and been hosted and co-sponsored by The Item at Lynn City Hall, Scripps provided three options for this year’s event: in-person, a Zoom meeting with a pronouncer and judges, or an online contest that Scripps developed.
The online format was chosen in this region, as the City Hall auditorium is still unavailable for use. In this format, words were given to the students by official Scripps pronouncer Dr. Jacques Bailly and contestants typed in their answers. Each speller had a proctor — with Nadeem’s mother, Rummana, beside her the whole time.
“Also,” she said, “we took an integrity pledge. And it’s more important for me to have integrity.
Muhammed Cham, of the Holten Richmond Middle School in Danvers, and Natania Fernandez, who attends the Academy of Notre Dame in Tyngsboro, each scored a 49 out of 50 on the test and shared second and third place.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the road to Orlando, Fla., where this year’s finals will be held, has a few stops along the way — all virtually. Ordinarily, the preliminary, quarterfinal and semifinal segments were held in Washington, D.C. during “Bee Week.” This year, those rounds will be held online, with only 12 finalists going to Florida to compete in the July 8 final.
Joel and Mary Abramson of Marblehead will be the event’s co-sponsors.
The other participants are Tyler Doan, Drewicz Elementary, Lynn; Sonali Koo, Pickering Middle School, Lynn; Toniloluwa Asenuga, Covenant Christian Academy, Peabody; Nate Felix, Dedham Country Day School; Benjamin Stewart, Fowler School, Maynard; Abisola Ogundipe Beckley, Lynn Vocational Technical Institute; Gabrielle Doney, Lynn Woods Elementary, Lynn; Dylan Uttam, Marblehead Community Charter Public School; Anthony Vizy, Marblehead Veterans Middle School; Raquel del Rio Vicario, Montrose School, Wakefield; Gabriella Hill, Norwell Middle School; Bennett Goodwin, Old Rochester Regional Junior High; Allie Cristofori, Our Lady’s Academy, Waltham; Marcus Irwin, St. John’s Preparatory School, Danvers; Miriam Mansare, Ste. Jeanne D’arc Elementary School, Lowell; Rushil Kelapure, Think Explore Create School, Worcester; Reem Ahrabar, Thurgood Marshall Middle School, Lynn; Lindhan Nguyen, Tucker School, Milton; Hoda Britel, William P. Connery Elementary, Lynn.
