Spelling bees don’t just showcase youth intelligence. They showcase the immense amount of effort these kids are putting in every day to learn and to better develop their vocabularies.
That in itself is admirable, but once they start spelling words I’ve never heard of… needless to say it’s impressive.
I had the pleasure of judging the 39th annual Daily Item Regional Spelling Bee alongside former winner Saketh Madhusudhan and former Item Sports Editor Steve Krause — and when I say “pleasure,” I mean that with every fiber of my being.
It was the little moments throughout the night that had my cheeks hurting by the time I got home.
One moment that stands out above the rest was when one young man had already asked for a word’s definition, origin, everything he could, but he still seemed stumped. He then looked at pronouncer Walter Stone and asked, “And how do you spell that?”
The room erupted in giggles. I was in stitches, and although that word eliminated him from the competition, he absolutely made my night.
Kids, man, they say the darndest things.
Most of my job is about writing and getting information out to the general public, but the best part of my job is engaging with the community — and this bee was a great chance for me to connect with local youth and see what they’re made of.
Lynn was represented by 5th graders Taseen Mahmud of Drewicz Elementary School and Hafsa Menkari of Edward Sisson Elementary School; Lynnfield was represented by 8th grader Soloman Anderson of Lynnfield Middle School; and Peabody was represented by 5th grader Timmy Paik of Covenant Christian Academy.
But my immediate interest was piqued by the Marbleheaders, since that’s my coverage area. Marblehead was represented by four students: 5th grader Isabella DelRe of Tower School, 7th grader Arvin Hagayegi of Marblehead Community Charter School, 8th grader Dounia Peters-Abbadi of Marblehead Veterans Middle School and 7th grader Logan Wild of St. John’s Prep, who earned bronze at the bee.
While Logan represented a Danvers school, he’s a Marblehead resident. And while Isabella represented a Marblehead school, she’s a Lynn resident.
My Californian inability to pronounce my Ts may have gotten the best of me when I tried to pronounce the word “reminiscent,” but if I ever get the chance to judge a spelling bee again, I’d do it in a heartbeat.
