ITHACA — You had to remember to include your T's and enunciate your I's if you expected to win the Adult Spelling Bee Sunday afternoon.
Extra consonants, missed vowels and misheard words cost several of the 24 teams a slot in the final round, but the field was finally narrowed to four — the Fall Creek Stingers from Fall Creek Elementary School, the Family Buzzers from Family and Children's Services, the Spelling Hellions from eCornell.com, and the returning champions from last year, the South Hill Spellicans from South Hill Elementary School.
Finally, with ‘miscellanea,' the Family Buzzers were the last team knocked out (guessing ‘miscellania'), and the Spelling Hellions were left standing.
Alan McCarty of the Hellions said he and his teammates drilled for only about half an hour. It was just long enough to show them how unprepared they were, said Joe Ellis.
Lisa Hatfield of the Hellions said the team will be back next year. “We have to defend our title,” she said.
The bee, put on by the Ithaca Public Education Initiative, raised about $10,000 for teacher grants through team sponsorships, donations and raffle sales, said Mary Grainger, member of IPEI's board of directors.
“Grants have such an impact on teacher morale and the classroom experience,” Grainger said. She said it is undecided how many grants will be given this year, but there will be around 30.
This was the 10th year of the contest, but the first year it was broadcast over the radio. WNYY-AM 1470 broadcast the event from Ithaca High School's Bliss Gym.
The contest was judged by a panel of three, including IPEI's Ralph Jones, who has been judging the contest since its inception.
“Every year it gets better and better,” Jones said. “We make sure the words are very difficult. If we don't use difficult words we'll be here until midnight. It's a very literate group here.”
The contest timekeeper — dressed as a bee keeper — was IPEI's Stuart Basefsky, who has also been helping with the contest all 10 years.
“Some people take it really seriously, especially when you get down to two or three teams left,” Basefsky said. “One of the biggest things is people will say, ‘I'll give money for a team, but don't make me spell.' It brings back memories of spelling in elementary school.”
