SPELLING BEE WINNERS CLINCH WITH NUMISMATICS

Eest Roc Wite Cotes thought their medical spelling knowledge would get them through. 2 Bee or Not 2 Bee came prepared with glittery antennae. The ElizaBEEThans went all out in costume, hoisting on wigs and poofy skirts as good luck charms. Spellaby Street offered bookies — book-themed cookies — along with their immaculately spelled answers.

And the Independent Spellers — that’s three journalists from this esteemed publication, including me — missed delirium. Oops.

These squads lined up to compete in the fourth annual New Haven Reads Spelling Bee, the literacy-based organization’s largest annual fundraiser.

Located at the Yale School of Management and presented by Higher One CARES, this year’s competition drew its largest audience yet this past Friday night, featuring 46 “swarms” of three spellers and raising $30,000. That money will support New Haven Reads’ literacy programs, which currently serve 450 students out of three sites across the city.

The bee’s festivities — and its participants — celebrated that joy of literacy and learning throughout the evening, honoring the organization’s 400 tutors by lending to words like numismatic and isosceles a sense of complete fun, as even woefully incorrect spellers giggled themselves off the stage at the end of each round.

“I couldn’t make it last year, and this year when I got the email I signed up” said Ellen Schowalter, member of the winning Spelltaculars — who buzzed through anencephalic all the way to numismatic, the final word that clinched the victory — with her mother and husband. “It was fun. I didn’t expect to actually go all the way, but it was fun. If the dates work, I’d love to do it again next year.”

To read the complete article, see:
Spelltaculars Win With “Numismatic” (/www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives
/entry/a_spelltacular_night/)

	NBS (coinbooks.org) Web