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Monday, May 28, 2001 By Eric Enders / Bee Staff Photos by Mark Bowen / Bee Photographer
WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 28, 2001) - Memorial Day was the calm before the storm for the 248 contestants in the 74th annual Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee, who spent the last day before competition begins playing volleyball, softball, horseshoes, and Frisbee with their families and Bee staff members. They and their families also enjoyed a barbecue dinner, apple pie, and square dancing at Gunston Hall, a Northern Virginia colonial mansion built by Founding Father George Mason. For many spellers, the barbecue was an opportunity to meet their peers and get to know others with diverse personalities and interests. One contestant, Janet Schonthaler of Annapolis, Md., is an accomplished fisherwoman who once caught a three-foot-long northern pike. Another, Samantha Gillogly, is an artist who has been selling her work through the Martha's Vineyard Women's Cooperative since she was eight years old. Another, Bria Walsh of Anderson, Ind., enjoys writing short fiction. Before the first round of spelling begins at 4 p.m. Tuesday, many spellers and their families plan to spend the morning touring Capital area sights such as the Supreme Court and the Smithsonian museums. "We want to see Mount Vernon, and we want to go on tours of Annapolis and the Air and Space Museum," said Sharon Barrett, a sixth grader from Midland, Texas. "And I definitely want to go to the Library of Congress to see all those books. I've been reading ever since I could turn a page. I was holding little baby books as far back as I can remember. That's given me the opportunity to see a lot of words in print, so I know how to spell." All of the words in Tuesday's first round will come from Bee-provided study materials, including Paideia, a booklet that helps students improve their vocabularies by sorting spelling words into categories of related terminology. But beginning with Wednesday's second round, any of the 475,000 words contained in Webster's Third New International Dictionary are fair game. "I'm a little nervous, but I'm also excited. I'm looking forward to it a lot," Sharon said. "But I haven't studied enough this year. I think probably a lot of people are going to wish they had studied more. I've been studying the Paideia booklet and I've been doing a little studying on my dictionary. I just read through it, and whenever I find a word that I think might be on the spelling bee list, I write it down." This week represents the first time in Washington for many spellers, including 14-year-old T.J. Tutay of Reno, Nev. "I've never been east of the Mississippi before," T.J. said, "so I want to see as much of the city as I can. I'm going to try and get to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. Yesterday we walked over to the White House, and it rained, and we got lost because it was already dark. But it was fun. It was very different from what I expected." T.J. has attracted attention among his fellow contestants because he is speller #1, meaning he will be the first person to spell a word when the Bee begins on Tuesday. "I like being first because it means as soon as I spell one word the first day, I'm done and I won't have to worry about it until the next day," he said. "I just have to spell it right and get it over with. "I spelled pretty confidently at my state spelling bee, but I'm not sure about now. I've read a lot of the biographies of the other spellers, and they're pretty studious." Thursday's final rounds will be televised live on ESPN from the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington. At least one of this year's contestants is familiar with the elation experienced by the champion's family at the crowning moment: 12-year-old speller Mallika Thampy of St. Louis was in the audience last year as her brother George spelled "demarche" to win the championship. Now, Mallika and 247 other youngsters are set to begin the three-day journey that will change one of their lives forever.
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©2001, Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee All Rights Reserved. |
