May 4, 2005
Seniors enjoy word play
Cast A Spell-T.C. Spelling Bee draws 42 competitors
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Pusillanimous, ratatouille, seiche_
In a hard-fought, nail biting battle that stretched to 19 rounds, members of Team 12 finally nailed the Cast A Spell-T.C. Spelling Bee by spelling silhouette correctly. Taking home bobblehead bee trophies were John McCarthy, Roger Quinn and Leon Michael, members of one of three Rotary Club teams who entered the for-seniors-only event.
"I looked on the Internet and found that there were 22,000 words used in the spelling bees since 1960," said Michael before the event. "Of that, 7,000 were the most commonly used."
"Of course, I studied them all," he added, deadpan.
Rotary members showed up in force in response to a challenge by members of the Kiwanis Club, who fielded one team. The Rotarians delighted in their bright yellow and black shirts with their club name deliberately misspelled for the event: Rotery.
In all, the event drew 42 spellers on 14 teams. The second place team that went head-to-head with team 12 for so many rounds were the Pom Poms from the Port of Old Mission: Liz Bannister, Dona Hornbergger and Karen Foley. Third place went to the team featuring Kaye Clark, Nancy Hirsch and Ellen Monahan.
Members of the Traverse City Senior Center conceived of the Cast A Spell-T.C. event and held two practice sessions prior to Friday's competition. These sessions also helped match spellers into teams.
The rules for this bee differed because of the team aspect, which allowed members to confer about their word for up to a minute. In addition, teams had notepads to write down possible spellings before reaching consensus, adding a visual element to the typical memorization feat.
"The team aspect was different, there were a lot of times I'd write something down once and say, 'Wait a minute,'" said Judi Lang of Traverse City, who connected with one of her teammates at a practice session. "But I like words and I like to read."
After the field narrowed to two teams, after 12 intense rounds, the rules changed. When a team misspelled a word, the other team had to spell that word correctly plus a new word in order to win. This wrinkle added another seven rounds to the event.
Author Mike Sheehan, of the WTCM talk show Words to the Wise, was the bee master for the day. A judges panel for appeals featured Linda Smyka, mayor of Traverse City, and Kevin Kane, the reigning regional spelling bee champion. (The panel fielded two appeals during the bee, rejecting both alternative spellings after consulting a massive dictionary.)
An eighth grade student at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Middle School, Kane was pleased to spend 90 minutes on the other side of the dictionary. Heading to the national spelling bee in Washington, D.C., in early June, Kane said Cast A Spell-T.C. was helpful.
"This helped me study, just got me into the spelling bee mode," he said. "It was interesting, different from what I've done before."
Cast A Spell-T.C. drew an enthusiastic audience of more than 65 people, many of them friends or relatives of competitors. Narrator Pat Thompson, a program coordinator at the Traverse City Senior Center, kept up a patter that enlivened the program and helped ease the tension of competition.
The whole event was such a success that the Traverse City Senior Center hopes to make it an annual happening.
"It far exceed my expectations and we had a great gallery," enthused Lori Wells, director of the Traverse City Senior Center. "This is why we do what we do."