Buzzing Greeley Spelling Bee Nets $15k

The Greeley gym was packed Thursday night for the second annual Horace Greeley Scholarship Foundation Spelling Bee, a fundraiser that brought in about $15,000 this year.

Dozens of students, teachers and parents came out to compete, incorporating the "Bee" theme in either their names with puns or by dressing up in customes. There, teams battled it out to outwit each other for prizes, spelling out tricky words such as desquamate, jodhpur and tintinnabulation.

Teams played in seven rounds, groups according to age or profession, with many sponsored by local organizations and businesses; there were 37 in total. The winners of each round faced off in a championship round. The overall winner was the MnMnMnemonics, led by Seven Bridges Middle School Principal Martha Zornow and accompanied by Maria Sarro and Michelle Ramahlo.

The goal of the event was to raise money for the foundation, which awards financial aid to college-bound students.

“It’s such a fun event and it’s so lighthearted and everyone loves it and it raises a tremendous amount of money for a really important cause," said senior Danielle Leventhal, who helped to organize the bee through the community service group Students Have a Responsibility Everywhere (SHARE).

Leventhall noted the success of the event, with the increase in fundraising to about $15,000 from roughly $10,000 last year. In addition, there were 44 teams participating, an increase of roughly 50 percent from last year's inaugural bee.

“Well it’s a great thing and my son was a recipient of the Horace Greeley High School Scholarship," said Francesca Hagadus, a French and Spanish teacher at Robert E. Bell Middle School whose son went throught the district. She participated in a teachers group called The Linguists, with fellow instructors Jeanne Anzalone and Alicia Conte.

“They brought together elements from every single constituency" in town, said David Perlmutter, HGSF president. 

Perlmutter has a son in Greeley and three daughters in Seven Bridges. Two of his kids participated in the bee.