Sunday, May 27, 2001

Day One: Renewing old friendships and making new ones

By Eric Enders / Bee Staff

WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 27, 2001) – They are as old as 15 and as young as 10. They come from 58 states, territories and foreign countries. They come from one mile away (Justin Wheeler of Washington) and from 7,931 miles away (Frank Macabenta of Dededo, Guam). They’re a diverse group, but they all share one trait: An extraordinary command of the nearly half a million words that make up the English language.

Though the competition doesn’t kick off until Tuesday, most of the 248 contestants in the 74^th annual Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee arrived in Washington with their families this weekend. The festivities began with registration on Sunday, where spellers received bags filled with prizes and gifts, met other contestants, and feasted on cookies, brownies, soda, and ice cream.

Many of the 52 returning spellers spent the day renewing friendships with contestants they met at last year’s bee. But for some repeaters, making it back to the Bee was bittersweet. “One of my friends from last year, Katherine Butschek, didn’t make it back,” said Adam Molon, 14, of Lowell, Ind. “She got second place in her regional bee, so that was kind of disappointing for me.” Adam spent his first day at the Bee filming a home video to send to Katherine, who represented Victoria, Texas, in the 2000 Bee.

Adam says he plans to spend much of his week in Washington making the video. “It’s a lot of fun,” he said. “I had a real blast last year, and I hope it will be just as fun or even more fun this year. The kids here are all really nice and they’re a lot of fun to be around. The things I like the most are the barbecue and the beach party.”

But even for veterans like Adam, Bee Week is not all fun and games. “I’ve studied very hard,” he said. “I studied about 2½ hours a day before the regional bee, and I’ve been studying ever since then. It was a lot more difficult to make it back this year. The first year, the words were very easy and it didn’t take much for me to win, but this year they’ve really stepped it up word-wise, and it gave me a big challenge to get back here. I hope to just get past the first round, because I got out in the first round last year. You always want to do better than you did the year before.”

Another speller who overcame fierce regional competition is Lee Anthony Germino, a first-time national finalist who placed second in the New York City bee last year and won it this year. “My classmates were very happy for me,” he said. “They wanted to come to the Bee with me, but they couldn’t because we have finals this week. But my principal was able to come.

“I think I’m going to do well. I have a pretty good chance because I studied a lot. When it got close to the time for the Spelling Bee, I’d study around two hours a night.” Lee said the word he most hopes to get is “ipsedixitism,” a word he learned while preparing for the bee. What does it mean? “I have no idea,” he said. “I just like the way it sounds.”

            Though every speller hopes to do well, the results of the Bee are less important for some. Instead, they look forward to a week filled with activities and once-in-a-lifetime experiences. “My chances of winning are pretty slim, because there are some other kids that really try hard and study a lot,” said Will Wray, 13, of East Greenwich, R.I. “I didn’t study at all for the state bee; I just kind of studied on the way there. But for this one, I kind of made more of an effort to study and get ready. I’m going to give it a try and do my best.

“But the best part is definitely meeting the other kids, seeing all the other personalities and seeing who’s made it this far. I haven’t met many spellers personally yet, but I talked to a few of them online before I came here, so it will be fun to finally see them in person. The Spelling Bee will be fun, but it’s also going to be very intense and we’re all probably going to be nervous. I’ve never participated in an event of this magnitude before.”

Will said his favorite word to spell is “humuhumunukunukuapuaa,” a type of Hawaiian fish. “I think it goes h-u-m-u-n-h-u-m-u-n… well, I’m not sure how it goes after that, but it’s something like that. I forget what it means. It was in one of the spelling books.”