FLAIR Team wins Executive Spelling Bee

It was a panel of newcomers who took the trophy for the 23rd Annual Santa Paula Times Executive Spelling Bee for FLAIR when the FLAIR Team found “suffrage” the answer to their prayer. The Bee, sponsored by the Santa Paula Times and benefiting Family Literacy Aid in Reading, was held May 29th at First United Methodist Church’s Wesley Hall, where contestants and supporters enjoyed dinner, opportunity drawings and Lucky Egg prizes as well as an old-fashioned Cake Walk. 

Spellers were soothed by pre-Bee musical entertainment offered by guitarist Barry Cooper, who entertained right up to the time the Bee started, an event this year judged by City Councilman Martin Hernandez and Blanchard Community Library Trustee Brenda DeJamaer.

FLAIR Executive Coordinator Kathryn Bornhauser made welcoming remarks and then Master of Ceremonies Don Johnson of the Bee-sponsoring Santa Paula Times took to the stage to explain the rules of the spelling game. Johnson introduced VIP - Very Important Pronouncer - Leslie Nichols, whose perfect way with words and soothing voice helped the players as they strived to spell contest words, even those never heard of before.

Johnson also introduced the evening’s official Bee, 11-year-old Taisha Rivera, and Santa Paula Times Publisher Debbie Johnson, who carefully kept track of the spelling hits and misses. Taisha, a Briggs School 6th grader, was tasked with ringing the bell to signify a team had misspelled a word and was out of the highly contested Bee.

The hastily assembled but good-natured audience team of Robert Borrego, Gena Rios and Luella Wright found it was soon suspended when they became the first team out on “moratorium.”