The Marlton Woman’s Club hosted the event on Jan. 25.
The competitors walked into the gym at J. Harold Van Zant Elementary School, ready for this year’s tournament. They had been practicing diligently for the night and improving their skills. As start time neared, some practiced breathing. Some found a corner for last minute practice. Some were chatty, others pensive, others excited. Parents, siblings and teachers looked on from the stands as competitors all took to the gym floor with one goal — to outlast the competition and become the champion.
The spelling bee champion.
On Jan. 25, there were 23 brave fourth-and-fifth-grade students at Van Zant Elementary gathered for the Marlton Woman’s Club’s Fourth Annual Spelling Bee, held for the first time at Van Zant School.
The contest was open to all fourth and fifth graders and the opportunity was encouraged by Principal Nick DiBlasi.
Twenty-three students took up the challenge, donned number cards and battled their classmates for bragging rights.
After a warm-up practice round, students walked to the microphone (itself daunting for this age group) and were provided a word to spell. Words began in simpler forms (poem, Vermont, accused, lettuce) and escalated to more difficult words like turquoise, receipt, loneliness and whiskers.
Capital letters needed to be pronounced on proper nouns, competitors could not try again if they made an error, and all were encouraged to speak in clear, slow voices. Winners advanced, while those who missed their attempt did not.
As the rounds continued and difficulty increased, finalists slowly emerged as fourth grader Hunter Cardone and fifth graders Safeena Bhimani, Maria Dibonito and Jaylin Majette each had successfully spelled every word.
Then a misstep by Maria followed by a miss from Jaylin in the next round left just Hunter and Safeena standing.
Hunter received the word “acquainted” and misspelled the word, allowing Safeena the opportunity to correctly spell it to advance. She did, and tension grew as the announcer indicated the final word the fifth grader would need to spell correctly to win. Safeena slowly and correctly spelled c-a-r-b-o-h-y-d-r-a-t-e to applause and the title of Spelling Bee Champion.
First, second and third place winners received gift cards to Barnes & Noble, and the top three finishers (Safeena, Hunter and Jaylin) will advance to the district spelling bee, sponsored by the New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs.
The spelling bee is a sponsored event of the NJSFWC, of which the Marlton Woman’s Club is a member. Women’s clubs throughout New Jersey hold local spelling bees as part of the organization’s focus on education. Winners advance to regional and state competitions.
For more information on the Marlton Woman’s Club visit www.marltonwomansclub.com.
