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Last updated on Monday, March 5, 2018
(PAOLI) - The Orange County Publishing Company’s Great Spelling Bee will return for the fourth year on Sunday, March 18, at 2 p.m., and 24 young men and women will face off on stage at the Ruth Farlow Uyesugi Auditorium at Paoli Junior-Senior High School to determine the county’s top speller and who will be moving on to be one of the approximately 300 contestants in this year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., in May.
"Admission is free, and there will be plenty of seats for everyone who'd like to come cheer on their favorite students or school," said Orange County Publishing Company Managing Editor and the county bee's organizer, Miles Flynn.
Flynn will be the reader for the event, and judges will be Sarann Weeks of Paoli, Robert Henderson of Orleans and Todd Marshall of Springs Valley.
The winner will follow in the footsteps of the 2015 Orange County Champion, Orleans eighth grader Matthew Ross; the 2016 champion, Orleans seventh grader Dylan Reid; and the 2017 champion, Throop Elementary fifth grader Cameron Apple.
Schoolwide bees determine who's in the countywide contest. The event is also open to homeschoolers if they or their association pay the same enrollment fee schools must pay, but no homeschoolers have taken part.
The competitors are: from Throop Elementary, sixth grader Jason Beavers, fifth grader Brian Fullington, fourth grader Dakota Mousty and fourth grader Charlie Higgins; from Paoli Junior High, seventh grader Cora Austin, eighth grader Arshdeep Singh, eighth grader Karyas Slaten and seventh grader Caitlyn Taylor; from Orleans Elementary, fifth grader Jayden Blanton, fifth grader Maddox Russell, fifth grader Ayla Steele and sixth grader Ryan Williams; from Orleans Junior High, eighth grader Samuel Carr, seventh grader Timberlyn Dalton, seventh grader Allison Jones and seventh grader Lucas Pingle; from Springs Valley Elementary school, fifth grader Kinsey Campbell, fifth grader Hunter Carnes, fourth grader Josie Dixon and fourth grader Elliott Wininger; and, from Springs Valley Junior High, sixth grader Sean Baker, sixth grader Karson Dalton, seventh grader Logan McWilliams and seventh grader Lola Pantoja.
The winner will receive a six-night stay in Washington, D.C., with all travel, lodging and incidental costs paid.
"We owe so many thanks to the Orange County Community Foundation, Orange County REMC Operation Round Up, Springs Valley Bank & Trust Company, Old National Bank, Indiana Natural Gas, Paoli Walmart and the Springs Valley Education Foundation for making this exciting opportunity possible for our local youth," said Orange County Publishing Company Managing Editor and the local bee's organizer, Miles Flynn.
Spellers from all around the United States will get to know each other during a barbecue on Memorial Day. Preliminaries begin May 31. Finals follow the next day. All participants will get to take part in the awards banquet and farewell party before heading back home.
In addition to the trip, the winner will also receive access to Britannica Online Premium and Merriam-Webster Unabridged Online and the Samuel Louis Sugarman Award with 2018 United States Mint proof set.
The runner-up will receive Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition.
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