By Gloria Austin
Staff Writer
HOULTON, Maine — It may have only been a small crowd, but standing in front of anyone to speak can be unnerving. That is what 12 sixth- through eighth-graders at the Greater Houlton Christian Academy undertook at the academy’s annual spelling bee last Friday. It was 12 rounds and about 45 minutes later that Mercedes Farn out-spelled her eighth-grade classmate Angela Nam to win this year’s bee. Farn spelled “insinuate” and then followed it with the word “bulbous” to become the champion.
Students are given words in a random order from “Bee Master” Rev. Randall Burns. Judges were Lisa Surran and Lindsey Watson. Students were allowed to have the word pronounced again, ask for the definition of the word and hear how the word would be used in a sentence.
Both Farn and Nam advance to the Aroostook County Spelling Bee, scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 6, at the Fox Auditorium at the University of Maine at Fort Kent. The state spelling bee will be held at the University of Southern Maine on March 22, and the winner of that contest will compete in the national bee at the end of May in Washington, D.C.
Other GHCA contestants included sixth-graders Will Austin, MacKenzie Bagley, Kyle Carver and Teagan Ewings; seventh-graders, Tyler Cox, Bailey Donovan, Cole Winslow and Isaac Potter; and eighth-graders Farm, Nam and Bridget Hill.
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