LYNN — The Daily Item 36th Annual Regional Spelling Bee will be held in person for the first time in two years at Lynn Auditorium on Tuesday, March 15.
The Daily Item and Joel and Mary Abramson are the main co-sponsors of the event.
This year, 67 schools across Massachusetts signed up to participate in the spelling bee, which third- through eighth-graders can participate in. The individual school spelling bees were completed online and consisted of 50 questions in total — 25 spelling words, and 25 vocabulary words. These spelling bees needed to be completed by Feb. 15.
Out of the 67 participating schools, 30 students are moving forward to the Regional Spelling Bee at Lynn Auditorium, including local students Amelia Stank from Pickering Middle School in Lynn; Nathaniel Vega-Yu from Lynn Vocational Technical Institute; Mark Grigoryan from Clarke Elementary School in Swampscott; Owen Fine from Village Elementary School in Marblehead; Natalie Navarrete from Marblehead Veterans Middle School; Sarah Montemor from Covenant Christian Academy in Peabody; and Prabhsimar Pabla from Lynnfield Middle School.
Other participating students are Kailey Allen (Danvers); Srivas Arun (Westford); Grace Carder (North Andover); Lily Cunha (Rockport); Gabriella Donovan (Norwell); Greyson Ebbrell (Danvers); Albert Esquea Gomez (Lawrence); Benjamin Evanowski (Still River); Nate Felix (Dedham); Dhruv M. Jain (Shrewsbury); Aneesa Maity (Walpole); Carter Neuschafer (Bolton); Leo Oakes (Amesbury); Kennisa Rotasayne (Fitchburg); Grace Rousseau (Mattapoisett); Kulsum Sayeed (Methuen); Ella Tandilyan (Wilmington); Mark Thampy-Abraham (Dover); Adarsh Venkannagari (Acton); and Nilawi Venkat (Lowell).
The spelling bee will be judged by The Daily Item News Editor Gayla Cawley, Item writer Steve Krause, and a teacher from St. Mary’s School in Lynn, Stacy Director. The pronouncer of the event will be Walter Stone, North Shore Community College assistant dean of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).
The winner of the regional spelling bee will move on to attend the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., and will receive a $100 Amazon gift card; round-trip airfare to Washington; week-long hotel accommodations; and spending money for the winner and chaperone, all paid for by the Abramsons.
The winner will also receive a Britannica Online Premium one-year subscription; The Samuel Louis Sugarman Award; a Merriam-Webster Unabridged Online one-year subscription; and a Hexco three-month complimentary subscription to National Words eMentor thanks to The Daily Item.
The second-, third-, and fourth-place winners will also receive prizes, and all participants will receive a $15 Amazon gift card.
“I am happy to be a part of the team of volunteers that provides a path to accomplishment for the students,” said Susan Conti, controller at the Item. “The teachers and students work very hard all year making every student that is part of our program a winner.”
The spelling bee begins at 5 p.m. and is free and open to the public. The participants will arrive at 4 p.m. and be given food from other sponsors including Dunkin’ Donuts, Monte’s Pizza in Lynn, and Old Tyme Italian Cuisine in Lynn. The event is also sponsored by the City of Lynn.
