Seventeen students from nine Greenbrier County elementary schools, two middle schools and Lewisburg Baptist Academy gathered with excitement on the Western Greenbrier Middle School stage to compete in Greenbrier County’s 2014-15 Spelling Bee on Jan. 15.
After 14 rounds of spelling challenges, Shaylen Lafferty, an 8th grade student from Eastern Greenbrier Middle School, correctly spelled the word “tautology” to win first place.
As the Greenbrier County Spelling Bee champion, Shaylen will travel to Capitol High School in Charleston on Mar. 14 to represent Greenbrier County in the regional spelling bee. Cole Snyder, a 4th grade student from Alderson Elementary School, earned his place as runner-up and will also travel to the regional bee. Ali Wills, a 4th grade student at Lewisburg Elementary School, placed as the first alternate.
“Each fall, our elementary and middle schools conduct classroom, grade and school-level spelling bees to determine who will represent their school at the county spelling bee. We are so proud of all of the students who participate at all levels of the competition, especially those who advance to the county bee. These are truly remarkable students who represent themselves and their schools with pride,” said Lynne Bostic, Greenbrier County’s Spelling Bee coordinator.
Competitors in this year’s county bee were: Cole Snyder, Alderson Elementary School; Olivia Parsons, Crichton Elementary School; Kaylan Feury, Shaylen Lafferty and Christopher McCullough, Eastern Greenbrier Middle School; Sheridan Tolley, Frankford Elementary School; Tracee Byer, Lewisburg Baptist Academy; Lawson Hamilton and Alexandria Wills, Lewisburg Elementary School; Nicolas Vanmeter, Rainelle Elementary School; Halianna Holliday, Ronceverte Elementary School; Daniel Bowie, Rupert Elementary School; Hailey Vaughan, Smoot Elementary School; Gabrielle Clower and Logan Shrewsbery, Western Greenbrier Middle School; and Luke Dolin and Emily McClung, White Sulphur Springs Elementary School.
Headquartered in Cincinnati, OH, the National Spelling Bee is the nation’s largest and longest-running educational promotion, administered on a nonprofit basis by The E.W. Scripps Company and local spelling bee sponsors around the globe. The purpose of the National Spelling Bee is to help students improve their spelling, increase their vocabularies, learn concepts, and develop correct English usage that will help them all their lives.