Mill Pond crowns spelling champ

By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
HODGDON, Maine — It took 12 rounds, including six “championship” sessions before a winner could be crowned in the Hodgdon Mill Pond School Spelling Bee Jan. 15.    Fifteen sixth- through eighth-graders competed for the right to advance to the Aroostook County Spelling Bee. Brendan Curran and Cody Tucker battled back and forth through six “championship rounds” before Curran was able to lay claim to the title. Curran, an eighth-grader, successfully spelled “complacency” followed by “circumstantial” to capture the school’s spelling championship.
Sarah Williams served as “bee master” for the event, while Sara Deveau, Maryann Sylvain and Stephanie Harris served as judges. Each student was given a warm-up word that when put together formed a helpful message for the students competing in the bee. That message was “Practice these helpful ideas — listen closely, never hurry, think before starting, apply rules, speak clearly.”
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.
Students were presented with tablets of paper and pencils to write their words down, if they so chose. Sewell went over the rules with the spellers explaining they could ask for their word to be pronounced again; ask for a definition; or ask to hear the word used in a sentence.
Other participating students included Joshua Foster, Lucas Ramsey, Ean Bolstridge, Victoria Morris, Kora Lambert, Joel Bond, Sydney Howell, Madisyn Merritt, Dylan Oliver, McKenzie Hipsley, Ethan Carter, Aaron Brooker and Olivia Morris.