During the Valentine’s Day Shop Hop on Friday night, Sara Smith won the second-annual Adult Spelling Bee hosted by Carnegie Public Library.
The bee was held at Capuana’s Courtview Delicatessen, 149 N. Main St. in Washington C.H., and was scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Guests enjoyed food from the restaurant throughout the competition.
Sarah Nichols, director of Carnegie Public Library, explained that Smith was very excited to win. She received a certificate, a Scrabble board game and a book. She also received a ceramic ornament featuring the library.
According to Nichols, other contestants who took part in the competition were Vicki Jones, Mandy Miller, Wendy Smalley, Mary Lorane Davis and Sylvia Call. During warm-ups, the six contestants responded to helpful observations and advice from the audience and spelling bee officials.
The words used for the competition had been shared by the library ahead of the event so contestants would have time to study them. There were 100 words of varying difficulty prepared. The first word on the list was “ladle” while the final word listed was “Waterblommetjiebredie,” which is a type of stew.
Washington Court House City Manager Joe Denen was the Spelling Bee announcer for the event.
“It was a lot of fun,” he said.
When asked about the difficulty of pronouncing the various words, he explained that it took some practice and a little research ahead of time. He further explained that he was thankful for the hosts of the event and the location.
According to Nichols, many hands went into bringing this event to fruition, including Marc Grubb and Kyler Kelley, who allowed the use of Capuana’s, Carnegie employees Jodi Noel, who officiated, and Nathan Forsha, who created the word list, along with various community members and Denen.
“We had a good turnout of both contestants and audience members,” explained Nichols. “It was intense at times, when spellers were concentrating on very difficult words, but also fun and full of laughs.”
Reach Jennifer Woods at 740-313-0355 or on Twitter @JennMWoods.
