Nineteen public school students, 12 private school students, and one homeschooled student will vie to become the champion of the 26th annual Anne Arundel County Spelling Bee on February 22, 2014.
The champion of the county bee wins an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., to compete in the 2014 Scripps National Spelling Bee from May 25-31, 2014. There will be other prizes for the county’s top spellers, including monetary awards from the 21st Century Education Foundation, as well as reference books and gift certificates from Encyclopaedia Britannica, the Samuel Louis Sugarman Award, and Merriam-Webster.
The bee is a partnership of Anne Arundel County Public Schools and the 21st Century Education Foundation. This year’s event sponsor is the Josephine B. Scheffenacker Education Trust. Other sponsors include SHW Group, Daly Computers, ClearEdge IT Solutions, Capital Gazette Communications, and Hair Cuttery.
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.
The event begins at 10 a.m. in the Board Room of the Parham Building, located at 2644 Riva Road in Annapolis.
Participants in this year’s bee are:
- Alyssa Hall, Grade 7, Annapolis Area Christian School
- Eelaaf Zahid, Grade 8, Annapolis Middle School
- Becca Hewitt, Grade 8, Arundel Middle School
- Hanna Mathews, Grade 8, Brooklyn Park Middle School
- Shane Jackson, Grade 8, Central Middle School
- Deborah Logan, Grade 7, Chesapeake Bay Homeschool Association
- Jasmine Elkhoga, Grade 8, Chesapeake Bay Middle School
- Karla Monroy, Grade 8, Chesapeake Science Point Public Charter School
- Michael Hoffman, Grade 6, Corkran Middle School
- Edwin Sarrach, Grade 7, Crofton Middle School
- Madison Williams, Grade 7, George Fox Middle School
- Jack Leitess, Grade 7, Indian Creek School
- Julia Leney, Grade 7, Key School
- Nathaniel Lathroum, Grade 6, Lindale Middle School
- Isabel Rivera, Grade 6, MacArthur Middle School
- Addison Hennick, Grade 8, Magothy River Middle School
- Raymond Feliciano, Grade 6, Marley Middle School
- Ellen Brady, Grade 8, Meade Middle School
- Khalil Nesbitt, Grade 6, Old Mill Middle School North
- Emily Shay, Grade 7, Old Mill Middle School South
- Isabelle Simmons, Grade 7, School of the Incarnation
- Kimberly Walker, Grade 8, Severn River Middle School
- Saylor Willauer, Grade 8, Severn School
- Campbell Jones, Grade 8, Severna Park Middle School
- Sean Lonergan, Grade 6, St. Andrew’s United Methodist Day School
- Liana Dawson, Grade 7, St. Anne’s School of Annapolis
- Annabel Lane, Grade 8, St. John the Evangelist
- Alana Miller, Grade 8, St. Martin’s Lutheran School
- Benjamin Luke, Grade 8, St. Mary’s Elementary School
- Garrett Collins, Grade 6, St. Paul’s Lutheran School
- Javier Velez-Marrero, Grade 7, St. Philip Neri School
- Claire McDonald, Grade 8, Wiley H. Bates Middle School