Local spellers prepare for chance at state

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Published on Saturday, 28 January 2012 15:12

Mary Loveland
Daily Elk Citian

Fifth- and sixth-graders from the surrounding area have a list of about 400 words running through their heads as they prepare to compete in tomorrow's Regional Spelling Bee at Grandview 5th-6th Grade Center in Elk City.

Sixth-grader Abigail LaValley and fifth-grader Garren Odom from Grandview were the two top finishers in the local Pat Duggar Memorial Spelling Bee earlier this month that qualified them for the upcoming competition. 65 students participated.

Four other schools will participate in this regional including: Canute, ElDorado, Hobart and Will Rogers Elementary in Burns Flat.

"Each one of these schools have their own local to determine their two winners," Grandview Principal Ranby Turney said. "Each school will have two participants for a total of ten."

Garren Odom's family seems to have a history of spelling bee winners. According to Turney, Garren's sister, who is now in junior high, qualified for the state bee when she was at Grandview.

Garren and Abibail were given a list of just under 400 words two weeks ago to prepare for the competition.

Turney said most of the studying and preparation takes place at home and on their own time.

Every word that the participants will be asked to spell tomorrow will come straight from this list.

"Each student will draw a number to make sure it's fair," Turney said.

The announcers will have the same list of words but in a different order. The number one participant will receive the first word on the list and so on.

The winning speller from the Regional Spelling Bee will move on to participate in the state level competition, The Central Oklahoma State Bee, in Norman on March 3. 

"I spoke to both of them this morning and they said, 'those words are hard,'" Turney said.

Garren and Abigail received good luck wishes over the intercom system this morning at school.

The spelling bee will begin tomorrow at 9:30 a.m.