In what ended up being a tough battle to the finish, the Butler County Community Resource Counsel third grade spelling bee saw one word after another being spelled back and forth from one child to the next; but eventually a winner emerged.
Clara Wilkerson, a third grade student at Oak GroveElementary School, was victorious.
The entire spelling bee lasted for nearly an hour, as student after student correctly spelled their assigned words over the airwaves. The words increasingly became more difficult, but each student held their ground.
Ultimately, the final two students — Wilkerson and a competitor from O’Neal — went back and forth spelling one word after the other with neither student showing any weakness.
The Annual Spelling Bee is held in January and February each year for Poplar Bluff third graders. The CRC sponsors the event, which is under the direction of the Succeeding in School committee.
There are three elimination rounds to select a building champion from each of the four Poplar Bluff elementary schools: O’Neal, Lake Road, Eugene Field and Oak Grove. The word lists are distributed one week prior to testing rounds.
“We thought we might have another tie-breaker situation,” Kathern Harris, a CRC volunteer, explained. “Both of those students came from Oak Grove Elementary as opposed to there just being one from Oak Grove, because a winner couldn’t be determined there. They were too good and spelled everything correctly. So both of them were able to compete here today.”
The winners from each location are awarded medals, and they each go on to compete in a district-wide championship where one first place champion is awarded a trophy.
“All of these kids worked so hard in preparation for this. And they all performed so well,” Harris remarked. “It kind of makes me wish we could crown them all as winners, but there can only be one.
“But none of these children have anything to be ashamed of. They all did extremely well and this was one of the toughest competitions we’ve seen. These children have a tremendous work ethic and they should all be proud of themselves.”
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story has been edited and correctly updated to include the fact that the spelling bee winner, Clara Wilkerson, is a third-grade student at Oak Grove Elementary School.