Kaua’i Spelling Bee tonight

Nail-biting excitement will mark the Kaua’i District Spelling Bee on Tuesday,

Feb. 29.

Twelve seventh and eighth graders will attempt to spell two more

words correctly than other spellers and become this year’s champion.

The

annual event starts at 6:30 p.m. at the King Kaumuali’i School Cafeteria.

Within a suspense-filled hour, two top spellers will win the right to

represent Kaua’i at the state Spelling Bee on April 1.

Spellers from three

public and three private middle and intermediate schools will compete this

year. St. Francis, a fairly new school on Kaua’i, will compete for the first

time with Sean Texeira and Christina Aiu as its spellers. Spellers representing

Kahili Adventist School will be Blazey Dee, Sarah Sylvester, and alternate

Walter Lappert. Kapa’a Middle School spellers will be Eve Lampenfeld, Justin

Goo, and alternate Tara Bonilla.

Kaua’i Intermediate will be represented by

Mia Shiraishi, Shelcie Takenouchi and alternate Cheydon Jacobs. Spellers from

St. Catherine will be Christopher Champol, Lance Largusa and alternate Bronson

Bautista. Waimea Canyon Representatives will be Scott Lopez, Kenani Kim and

alternate Chad Pablo.

Veteran judges for the Kaua’i Bee are Shawn DeMille,

from Kaua’i Electric, Adrya Siebring, vice-principal at Island School, and

Shirley Akita, former Kaua’i district superintendent.

Karen Petterson,

assistant features editor with The Honolulu Advertiser will be the

pronouncer.

State-wide sponsor for the even, The Hawai’i Newspaper Agency,

will support travel to Honolulu for the winners and chaperones. The East

Complex of the Department of Education, Kaua’i District, is coordinating the

local event with support from Meadow Gold Dairies, Kaua’i Community College

Food Service Department and the Hawai’i Newspaper Agency.

Parents,

teachers, fiends and the community are invited to attend and support the

spellers.