EATON — Kaiden Webb, an Eaton Middle School seventh grader, was crowned the winner of the 2019 Preble County Spelling Bee on Thursday, Jan. 24.
Runner-up was Taylor Sheley from Tri-County North Middle School.
Webb won in the 13th round by spelling “fidelity” and “denim” correctly after Sheley misspelled “loam.”
The competition was presented by the Preble County Educational Service Center. Assistant to the Superintendent Shawn Hoff was the host for the evening. Pronouncer for the event was Preble County ESC Enrichment Coordinator Daryl Michael.
Participants included: Jake Schaurer, Kaiden Webb, Ethan McAllister, Garland Weaver, Country Ford, Hunter Strothman, Cooper McCloud, Taylor Sheley, Tori McRill, Brenton Proctor, Evan Jones, Emma Upham, Brooklyn Holsapple, Dillon Graves, Donald Clark, Paige House, Christina Worley, Arianna Means, Lily Kuhn, and Lidsay Frederick.
According to Michael, students take an online class to qualify for the district spelling bee. The county spelling bee is meant to recognize students who won their school’s spelling bee.
All students at the county competition were winners at their school bee. The list of words used are available online and every student has an opportunity to study the words.
“Having spent my career as an educator, I still like to see correct spelling and I still think it has its place in our curriculum and in our lives. We keep that encouragement,” Michael said. “To some individuals, that challenge of being a correct speller and having an opportunity to show their ability to spell the word the correct way, gives them a challenge.”
Winner Webb participated in the school spelling bee last year and was determined to correct past mistakes.
“I’m feeling content and good about [winning]. I was very nervous, but it wasn’t as bad as I had expected,” Webb said. “I was trying to fix my mistakes from last year. I studied more this year. You definitely have to work hard for it and you get the effort that you put in to it.”
