By BRIDGET TURCOTTE
LYNN — Students are facing off for their chance to compete in The Daily Item’s 32nd Annual Regional Spelling Bee.
The bee will be March 10 at Lynn City Hall Auditorium. Candidates will consist of 52 champions from local schools in grades three through eight.
The winner of The Item’s regional bee will move on to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. in May.
“The kids learn public speaking, they learn a great deal about the origin of words and they learn about pronunciation. They get a lot out of it,” said RaeMarie Ferguson, who has been helping to organize the event since its inception in 1985 when she worked as a school teacher in Lynn. She was the coordinator for Brickett Elementary School, served as a judge and went on to join the organization committee.
The last three spellers standing will each receive an award. The first-place champion will take home a $100 gift card to Barnes & Noble and a five-day trip with a chaperone to Washington, D.C. for bee week.
Second and third place will snag a $50 and $25 voucher for the book store. The prizes are sponsored by Joel and Mary Abramson, owners of Flagship Travel, a Marblehead-based travel agency.
Each of the finalists will also take home a study guide from Hexco Academic, a Texas-based academic publishing company.
Ferguson, who has traveled to D.C. for the Scripps bee, said the best part of the experience is seeing the children’s reaction to their surroundings.
Of the most memorable contestants, she recalled Marblehead speller Amber Born, who was the first Item contestant to make it to the final round. Born took four trips to the national competition and placed fourth in 2013.
Born went on to coach last year’s winner, Mitchell Robson, who secured seventh place in his final of three consecutive trips to the Scripps bee. To secure his spot at the national competition, Robson went head to head with third-grader Ashrita Gandhari from the St. Michael’s School in North Andover for more than four hours and 400 words. A tie breaker held a week later lasted an additional 115 rounds.
So far, Revere students Zackaria Benlail, a fifth-grader at A.C. Whelan Elementary School; Melih Yilmaz, a fifth-grader at Abraham Lincoln Elementary School; Kendall Giordano, a fifth-grader at Beachmont Veterans Memorial School; Omolade Adeniyi, a third-grader at Hill Elementary School; Geovanny Acetty, a third-grader at Paul Revere Innovation School; and Samuel Burns, a sixth-grader at Susan B. Anthony Middle School, have secured a spot.
Fifth-grader Sara Johnston from the St. Monica School in Methuen is also headed for the bee.
Meghann Price, reading teacher at Thurgood Marshall Middle School, Item Sports Editor Steve Krause and Kathleen Shaughnessy, a teacher at Kipp Academy in Lynn, will serve as judges. Lynn English High School Social Studies Advanced Placement teacher William McGuinness will be the pronouncer.
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Bridget Turcotte can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @BridgetTurcotte.