Benjamin Pollard wins All School Spelling Bee | Slide show
Published 9:25 am Wednesday, January 29, 2014
After tough 12 rounds Benjamin Pollard said the magic letters, “j-u-r-i-s-d-i-c-t-i-o-n.”
The crowd erupted in applause and Pollard smiled for the first time during the two-hour long competition as he received his trophy as the winner of the All School Spelling Bee 2014.
“I’m very happy,” he said.
This year’s All School spelling Bee was held on Jan. 28 at 9 a.m. at the Orcas Island Public School cafeteria. Orcas Island Public School, OASIS and Orcas Christian School all participated in the bee. There were 19 students who competed to become the winner.
“I’m always a nervous wreck,” said Colleen O’Brien who has helped to moderate the spelling bee for about the last six years. “It’s very intense.”
Children’s Librarian Nita Couchman and Ed Wilson also moderated the bee.
The first round started out with mellow words like pillow, olive and drink. The second through sixth round presented more difficulty with words like infringe, shiatsu, sapphire and bonsai. By the seventh round only six students were left: Ian Maier, Flora Lister, Skyler Gregg, Evie Hance, Benjamin Pollard and Josiah Renich. They faced tricky terms like accuracy, perceptibly and abominate. Then there were only three facing round nine: Skyler, Ian and Benjamin. For the next two rounds all three fought for the championship, but by round 11 Benjamin and Skyler were the last students standing. After going back and forth for two rounds, Benjamin won with the word jurisdiction.
Benjamin, 13, placed in fourth place at last year’s All School Spelling bee. He said to get prepared for the contest he studied 45 minutes on “most days” over the last month memorizing new and complicated words. He won a trophy, a Kindle Fire HD and will go on to compete in the state regional spelling bee in Mt. Vernon. The winner of the regional spelling bee will receive an all expenses paid trip to participate in the national spelling bee.
“It’s great because it involves focused learning and a contest to use mental skills,” said O’Brien about the bee.
