By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser KauaÎi Bureau
HANAMA‘ULU, Kaua‘i — Island School eighth grader Catherine Bailey, 14, won the Kaua‘i District Spelling Bee last night, correctly spelling "paralysis" and then "fisticuffs."
The bee was held at King Kaumuali‘i Elementary School in Hanama‘ulu.
Bailey and two other contestants, 12-year-old Heather Haack of Waimea Canyon School and 13-year-old Amanda Savage of Chiefess Kamakahelei School, defeated the other five contestants in the contest in the first five rounds of spelling.
Then they struggled through four more rounds, during which both Bailey and Savage missed opportunities to win — Bailey slipping up on "Sagittarius" and Savage on "misdemeanor."
Once Bailey won the bee, Haack and Savage, both seventh graders, spelled through eight more rounds before Haack collected the second-place trophy. Savage missed the word "ambrosia," and Haack correctly spelled "diadem" and "savvy."
The top two Kaua‘i finishers advance to the state bee March 31 in Honolulu, and the Hawai‘i spelling bee champion will compete in the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee. The trip is sponsored by The Advertiser.
The state champ also will receive a Merriam-Webster’s Third New International Dictionary; a $200 Sears merchandise certificate; a Radio Shack compact disc player; a $100 U.S. savings bond from Samuel Louis Sugarman; a Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee gift certificate; and, for the winner’s parents, a $20 Tesoro Hawai‘i gift certificate.
The winner’s school will receive a computer and printer from Comp USA and a World Book Millennium 2001 Multimedia Reference Library from the Hawai‘i Court Reporters Association.
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