LYNN — It’s impossible to spell “Item Spelling Bee” without Joel and Mary Abramson, which is why they’re once again co-sponsoring Tuesday’s competition.
The 38th annual Daily Item Regional Spelling Bee, which will be held tonight at the City Hall Auditorium, began its partnership with the Abramson’s 12 years ago when Joel was approached and asked if he would be interested.
At the time, Abramson said the only schools participating were located in Lynn, and the only way he would agree to sponsor the contest long-term would be if the circulation expanded.
“We built it from like 20 schools to 130 schools, (or) whatever it was,” Abramson said. “It’s big now, and it’s what it should be.”
Abramson said the night of the competition is one of the best nights of the year when it comes to his philanthropic endeavors, because he can see all the work come together and the impact it has on the students.
“It’s a culmination of everybody’s efforts; all the kids, all the teachers, the parents, all the volunteers,” Abramson said. “It’s a culmination of a huge team effort over the period of several months,”
Tonight’s competition will see 39 third-to-eighth grade students, from seven different counties in Eastern Massachusetts, compete to go to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. later this year.
“What we find out, in many cases, up until after the kids win, they don’t even realize the magnitude of what they’ve accomplished,” Abramson said.
He said that very often, the winners have a delayed reaction, and it doesn’t hit them until later, when he’s discussing the trip on phone with them and their parents.
For the last 12 years, the Abramsons, former owners of Flagship Travel in Marblehead, have extended their generosity to the contestants by paying for the grand prize: $100 Amazon gift card; round-trip airfare to Washington, D.C.; week-long hotel accommodations; and spending money for the winner and chaperone.
“It’s very fun,” Abramson, from Swampscott, said. “That’s why we do this. It’s not to give money to the spelling bee, which is a great idea. It’s to see the results of what we all did together as a team.”
He said he’s excited for this year’s bee, and with the increased use of spell check and the lack of turning physical pages by kids these days, the spelling bee is more important than ever.
“I read a book every day of my life, whether it’s 10 pages or whatever, everyday. … And there’s no question that there’ll be more than one word (Tuesday) that I won’t spell as well as they do,” Abramson said about the contestants. “(These) are the kids that are going to separate themselves from the competition down the road.”
