Alexis Parrott of St. Anne’s School of Annapolis outlasted 29 other champion spellers today to capture the title at the 32nd annual Anne Arundel County Spelling Bee.
Alexis correctly spelled the word “Maltese” in the 10th round to win the championship. Vivien Kaplan of Key School finished second and Ayesha Shareef of Chesapeake Science Point Public Charter School was third.
The county bee is presented annually by the Anne Arundel County Public Schools Office of Secondary Reading, English, and Integrated Literacy. This year’s presenting sponsor was Development Facilitators, Inc. (DFI). The event sponsors were Educational Systems Federal Credit Union, BGE, Comcast, DALY Computers, and M&T Bank. The champion sponsors for this year were American College of Education, Buffalo Wild Wings, and NTA.
Alexis wins an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., where she will represent Anne Arundel County in the 2020 Scripps National Spelling Bee in May. Prizes for contestants in today’s bee also included monetary awards from Educational Systems Federal Credit Union as well as reference books and gift items from Merriam Webster, Medieval Times, Bowie Baysox, Southwest Airlines, Glen Burnie Regional Library, Chick-Fil-A of Annapolis, and Wegmans of Crofton.
The Scripps National Spelling Bee is a not-for-profit educational promotion sponsored by The E.W. Scripps Company in conjunction with businesses and community organizations around the world. Each sponsor organizes a spelling bee program in its community with the cooperation of area school officials: private, charter, parochial, public, and home schools.