The West Side Social Club was buzzing with excitement on Friday night!
WEF held its 8th Annual Adult Spelling Bee on March 13th which drew a crowd of 12 lively teams who showed their Bee spirit with clever team names and costumes. Some of the team names included “Highway to Spell,” “Daydream Bee-Lievers,” “Can’t find the Anthers,” “Quiztopher Walken”, and “Triskaidekaphobia Support Group” which was a reference to Friday the 13th-the date of the Bee. Local business and longtime WEF supporter, The Savings Bank formed a team and joined the fun calling themselves “TSBees.”
Andrew Tetrault (“Mr. T.”), Galvin Middle School Assistant Principal, returned for the 8th time as the emcee facilitating the Bee rounds and energizing the crowd. Mr. T. added his own style and humor to the script and kept the crowd entertained and engaged. The game consisted of 8 rounds, including spelling words related to a theme, plus one trivia question. The first round “Movie Villains” seemed fitting on Friday the 13th. This round included hard to spell movie villain names such as “Freddy Krueger,” “Anton Chigurh,” and “Nosferatu.” The second round included difficult to spell adjectives including “persnickety,” “acquiescent,” and “indefatigable.” Other rounds included medical terminology, American geography, movie quotes and album covers- there was something for everyone!
Mr. T. masterfully pronounced challenging words and struck just the right balance to keep the spirit both competitive and fun. Wakefield resident Pete Healey served as the event DJ and worked in sync with Mr. T. to entertain the crowd throughout the evening.
WEF Board member Jennifer Theriault chaired the event with a lot of support from many dedicated WEF volunteers who buzzed around the West Side Social Club all evening handling technology, scoring, and answering participants’ questions.
During two intermissions, scores were announced so that all could see the team rankings. It was a closely contested event and bonus points for showing Bee Spirit contributed to the final score. Teams were awarded 1, 2 or 3 extra points for their themed costumes. Participants on Team “Bee the People” dressed in colonial outfits, bonnets and tricorn hats. They wore name tags including “Been Franklin,” “Beetsy Ross,” and “Beenedict Arnold.” They decorated and surrounded their table with patriot décor and signs including the “Declaration of inBeependence,” “One if by land, two if by Bee,” and “Liberty, Justice, and Honey for All.” “Bee the People” came in first place for and received 3 bonus points. Team “Bee-Nito’s Super Bowl Grass,” in a nod to Bad Bunny’s Superbowl half time show, dressed as green grass and came in second place for their efforts earning 2 points. Team“BEEtlejuice,” dressed like characters from the movie, and came in 3rd with 1 bonus point. Additional teams also showed great creativity this year as well.
In the end, Team “Bee the People” were victorious with a total score of 92 points. They proudly posed for the photo and received gift bags of Honey and tea.
BEEtlejuice, came in second place with a score of 87 points, and The Shamrock Shakes came in third place with 82 points. “BEEched Whales” prioritized fun over winning and were great sports when they learned they earned the title of “last place.” They received bee antennae and proudly posed for a picture.
According to WEF President Jamee Paolillo, “Once again we had another great Spelling Bee. Beyond the impressive spelling, we look forward to seeing the creativity of the team names and costumes- their spirit makes the night so much fun! We are so appreciative of all the participants for coming out to support WEF and for helping us raise funds for enrichment programs that benefit students across all of Wakefield Public Schools.”
All proceeds for the Spelling Bee will support the mission of the Wakefield Educational Foundation, a 501(3) non-profit community-based organization dedicated to supporting and enhancing excellence in education for all students in the Wakefield Public Schools. WEF has awarded over $770,000 across the Wakefield Public Schools since 1989. Learn more by following WEF on Twitter or Facebook, or go to WEF01880.org.