2019 Ottawa County Spelling Bee...
...a step on the way to Scripps National Bee in Washington D.C
The Port Clinton Performing Arts stage was filled with excitement last night, Tuesday, February 5 as 30 students from grade 5-8, representing 10 school buildings, 6 school districts, and 2 parochial schools joined in the 25th Annual Ottawa County Spelling Bee which is sponsored by the North Point Educational Service Center. Following the procedures, rules and word lists from the national Scripps contest the students listened to Mrs. Jeanne Lawrence, the pronouncer, state a word which they then had to spell correctly. The Bee continued for 27 rounds as students came to the microphone, heard the word, spelled the word correctly, and returned to their seats. With the final two students going back and forth the end did not seem near until finally one misspoke and a champion was determined by spelling one more word correctly!
The final four students who earned the right to represent Ottawa Co and their schools in the next level Bee, the Northwest Ohio Blade championship Bee at the Owens State Community College in March are as follows:
Champion - Bryce James, 7th grade - Port Clinton Middle School
Runner -up - Zoey Bauder, 5th grade - Woodmore Elementary School
Third Place - Madison Wolf, 8th grade - JC Roberts (Genoa)
Fourth Place - Phoebe Lenke, 7th grade - Oak Harbor Middle School
All of the students had earned the right to come to the Ottawa County Bee by being a champion in their own school so they had prepared overtime for this opportunity, and were winners in their own right. Congratulations
A special thank you to the Port Clinton Women’s Club for supporting and working this event as well as the Port Clinton City Schools for allowing the use of their facilities.
If you have never attended a Spelling Bee, you are invited to come next year, and see what these students know!