With the morning breeze emanating, hope was in the air for the Vernon Morning Star NewsBees on Wednesday, Oct. 11.
Competing at the Adult Spelling Bee Team Challenge, put on by the Literacy Society of the North Okanagan, the team was hoping to hop onto the podium for just the second time in 14 years.
The Bee is a fundraiser for the society, which offers a slew of volunteer-led programs aimed at raising literacy and digital literacy competency of children, adults and seniors.
The Morning Star donated $6,000 in September, for the society’s Raise-A-Reader campaign, which will support accessible literacy initiatives throughout the North Okanagan. A need for volunteers is still ongoing, according to coordinator Wendy Aasen. And Raise-A-Reader donations, which are matched, can still be made online at literacysociety.ca.
“We have so many ideas for other programs, but we can only get as big as we have volunteers to help us serve,” she said.
To start off the three-round competition, the NewsBees, clad in bee-like kitsch attire, came out buzzing like an orangutan out of a cage. The team went four-for-five in the opening round, faltering just once on the difficult word of hemorrhoid.
The Literacy Society of North Okanagan’s annual Spelling Bee had a special performance from the TKH Dance team, the ZomBees! #thriller pic.twitter.com/suhJZZGUTI
— Vernon Morning Star (@VernonNews) October 12, 2023
By round two, the sheen from the event began to dim, as disagreements on spelling began to occur within the squad. A full-on melee was not had, yet stress balls may or may not have been thrown at teammates, who were louder than expected. This chaos and disorganization led to a tough two-for-five showing in the middle round.
Fearless captain Jennifer Smith, while not clad in jacquard fuchsia clothing, was earnestly attempting to focus the seven other lowly compatriots to put up a fight.
But, like a broken torqued-up chassis on a vehicle, the attempt to steer the team was cantankerously hapless.
By the third round, you would be forgiven for thinking the NewsBees consumed ayahuasca or some psilocybin-like substance, as they haggardly faltered on four of the five words.
In the end, we were spared from hearing the full 20 team standings results, as just the top three were announced. A staphylococci infection, while assumed due to the poor performance, was not diagnosed.
The winners were, obviously, the Okanagan College Eggheads for a record ninth time, as their dynasty continued. And The Morning Star’s undynasty continued, its streak stretching to its 14th year of not winning the event.
At least the delicious breakfast that was provided by the Prestige Vernon Lodge, hosting place for The Bee, helped soften the blow.
Perhaps a trip to the sequoia forest, a strum on the ukulele and a light quinoa dinner is what is needed to decompress from the event, in the hopes of triumphing next year.
Below are the list of words at the Spelling Bee (* denotes correctly spelled from the Morning Star):
Round One
1. Hemorrhoid
2. Chassis*
3. Orangutan*
4. Kitsch*
5. Melee*
Round Two
1. Psilocybin
2. Torque*
3. Jacquard
4. Fuchsia
5. Quinoa*
Round Three
1. Ayahuasca
2. Staphylococci
3. Sequoia
4. Ukulele
5. Cantankerous*
READ MORE: Buzz for Bee as annual spelling challenge for literacy in Vernon nears
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