Reaching Heights Community Spelling Bee

Each year Reaching Heights sponsors a community spelling bee for adults. Three-person teams pay $500 to enter the bee. Proceeds from this friendly competition go directly into the Heights schools through Reaching Heights grants. The first bee was held in 1992 and the annual gathering has generated over $190,000 that Reaching Heights invested in the Heights schools through grant programs.

2008 Reaching Heights Spelling Bee
champions Upper Case (left to right):
Pat Crago, Lynn Singer, and Jeff Janata.

Up to 24 teams can compete. All kinds of teams find their way to the stage at Heights High -teachers, lawyers, librarians, local merchants, musicians, elected officials, developers, PTA sponsored parent-teacher teams and church and university affiliated spellers. Loud cheering sections add to the festivities.

Experience Defeats Youth in
17th Reaching Heights Spelling Bee!

The 17th Annual Reaching Heights Community Spelling Bee came down to a thrilling contest matching age and experience against youth and energy. Experience won, as the Upper Case team of Case Western Reserve University faculty members defeated a team of Cleveland Heights High School students.

Upper Case team members Pat Crago, Jeff Janata, and Lynn Singer correctly spelled perchlorinate in the ninth round while the SMRT Team of Rachael Collyer, Chris Hoffman, and Lewis Pollis stumbled on orthorhombic. The two teams slugged it out for three rounds before the thrilling conclusion. The SMRT Team took its name from The Simpsons.

Earlier in the competition, the audience was stunned when two-time defending champions OOPS, featuring members of the Cleveland Orchestra, went out in the first round on fuselage.

The 17th annual bee involved 24 teams of three spellers each. Each team paid an entry fee of at least $500 to earn the chance to compete. The friendly competition raised more than $15,000 to support School Team Grants – a Reaching Heights program that provides grants to CH-UH teachers and staff for innovative strategies to bolster student achievement.

Reaching Heights awarded the Friend of Public Education Award to Andrea Freeman for her many years of volunteer service to the students of our district. Big Fun owner Steve Presser once again served as emcee for the evening, while Notre Dame College theater professor Tony Zupancic served as pronouncer. Judges for the competition were Federal District Court Judge Solomon Oliver, CH-UH school Superintendant Deborah Delisle, Canterbury Elementary School Principal Kevin Harrell, and The Rev. Dr. Louise Westfall, pastor of Fairmount Presbyterian Church.

The 18th annual bee will take place on Thursday, April 23, 2009.