By Liz Lieblich
The Lincoln School Foundation‘s ninth annual town-wide Spelling Bee, a springtime ritual for grades 3-6, saw another record-breaking year, with 137 excited and bright students from Lincoln and Hanscom schools participating in the April 10 event. The Star Wars-themed event was filled with teamwork, spelling and even a Wookie.
The third-grade teams kicked off the day with three heats of competition, the winners of which went on to the championship round. The Omega Ms team with Mia Arvelo, Miguel Bannister and Morgan Gibson won the championship round with the word prohibit.
Three heats of fourth-grade teams competed to make it to the championship round. Under the team name Sparkleberries—Micayla Herlihy, Annabella LaPuma and Travis Rabe won with their final word pursue.
In keeping with the LSF’s mission to bring innovative ideas into our schools, this year’s fifth-graders helped pilot a new style of Spelling Bee competition. Every team was given the same word to spell out on a whiteboard and double elimination helped ensure that one extraordinarily hard word didn’t wipe out the whole group unfairly. A big congratulations goes out to fifth-grade team Buzz Killers—Oliver Ansin, David Christenfeld and Henry Johnson-Cramer won for the third year in a row by spelling the final word imagery.
For the sixth grade, it was Amal Dirrane, Emily Feng and Emma Griffith who won as Werd Nerds, ending the Bee by correctly spelling the word dramatically.
The LSF extends a special thank-you to Callahan’s Karate in Bedford. Richard and Winnie Callahan and a team of martial arts students dressed up as Star Wars characters and put on an exciting light-saber demonstration for the audience.
As always, the LSF had great support from school faculty and the community. Many thanks to the pronouncers: Superintendent of Schools Becky McFall; Assistant Superintendent Patricia Kinsella; Principals Beth Ludwig, Sharon Hobbs and Erich Ledebuhr; and the judges: teachers Jennifer Mastrullo, Deb Carpenito, Joe Colombo, Nancy Rote and Blake Siskavich as well as Officer Ian Spencer from Lincoln Police Department, Lincoln Parks and Recreation Director Dan Perira, and Lincoln Public Library children’s librarians Debbie Leopold and Denise Shaver.
The LSF is also immensely grateful to the local businesses that sponsored the Bee: 440 Labs, Budget Printing in Concord, Boston Sports Clubs, Callahan’s Karate, Cambridge Trust Company, Coldwell Banker, Doherty’s Garage, Donelan’s Supermarkets, Doug Carson Real Estate, the Hanscom Air Force Base Commissary, Marquis Tree Service, Mystic Valley Music Together, Party City, Something Special and the Whistle Stop.
The LSF is a nonprofit organization that solicits community donations for projects proposed by Lincoln Public Schools teachers and staff to enhance education. Click here to see projects funded by the LSD in 2015-16. Individuals may also donate to the LSF’s HATS program (Honor a Teacher and Staff) to fund grants.
- Click on an image and then click the “i” icon at the bottom to see the caption
- Click the diagonal arrow button to see the largest evrsion
- To move between photos, move your mouse cursor to the far left or right of your screen and click on the white arrow that appears.
- To return to the Lincoln Squirrel, click the “x” in the upper right of your screen.