Spelling bee gets ready to ‘bumble’

The rallying cry for the 2007 Spell-a-Bration, taken from the popular jock jam “Let’s Get Ready to Rumble,” came from this year’s spelling bee winners, the Barrister Bees, at this morning’s Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce coffee hour at Western Kentucky University’s Ag Expo Center.

Maryellen Self and Lee Hatcher, two-thirds of the Kerrick, Stivers, Coyle and Van Zant law firm team, attended the coffee hour to promote the Feb. 27 event and to challenge other local law firms to …

“Of course, the name ‘Barrister Bees’ is already taken, but if you want to use ‘Legal Losers,’ that’s OK with us,” Self joked.

The last Spell-a-Bration, a communitywide adult spelling bee, attracted 18 teams and raised $4,500 for Community Education programs, said Anne Grubbs, enrichment and volunteer coordinator. Entry fee is $300 per three-member team; however, single entrants are accepted at $100 each and then joined with an incomplete team. Teams have already begun signing up for next year’s event, hosted at the Knights of Columbus hall and sponsored by Hills, Franklin Bank and Trust, South Central Bank and Huish Detergent.

Wearing their matching black pullovers embroidered with their team name – third teammate Stephanie VanBuren was unable to attend – Hatcher and Self said they’ve already signed up to defend their trophy.

“We just had so much fun,” Hatcher said.

Studying words together brought the three ladies closer, Self said, and the law firm rallied around the team.

“It was tense, it was stressful and yet it gave you such a sense of accomplishment,” Self said. “You think you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but you can.”

The Paideia, the packet of words studied by participants in the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee, will be distributed to teams in January, Grubbs said.

The coffee hour, sponsored by the chamber’s agribusiness committee, was opened with an invocation by Kentucky Speaker of the House Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green. Following the blessing, chamber chairman Rick Kelley announced it was his last meeting in that position, as there will be no coffee hour events in December or January.

The morning wrapped up with a spirited hog auction, with money raised going to benefit the chamber’s agriculture scholarship.

The past year has seen growth of the chamber of commerce, including its new facility, which hosts a Dec. 20 open house. Several new partners were announced at the coffee hour, and a handful of partners were recognized for upping their participation level.

“We truly do have a great thing going in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and I want to encourage everyone to do their part to keep it that way,” Kelley said.

 

Adams, Rachel (2006, November). Are you ready to bumble? Bowling Green Daily News. Retrieved from http://www.bgdailynews.com/news/spelling-bee-gets-ready-to-bumble/article_bfb6bc29-84a1-5e06-a2d9-616b51a38880.html