Freddie Lee Collins Wins Spelling Bee

It was the correct spelling of “fedora” that provided the win for Freddie Lee Collins in the Greene County ESC District Spelling Bee. Freddie is the daughter of Traci and Jon Collins and is a fifth grader at Mills Lawn Elementary in Yellow Springs. Finishing in second and third place were Amanda Rentsch and Carolyn Russo respectively.  

This year’s bee was held on Tuesday, January 10, 2012. Ten area schools participated  and about one hundred guests attended the contest. The bee is sponsored by the Dayton Daily News and Scripts National Spelling Bee. Individual schools in Greene County held competitions to determine their winners for the district bee, as all students must compete at two levels prior to the regional bee.

The following school champions competed in this year’s bee: Edward Leo McGarry from St. Luke School in Beavercreek,  Donna Elizabeth Cook from St. Brigid School, in Xenia, Carsyn Siefert from Tecumseh Elementary School in Xenia, Amanda Rentsch from McKinney Middle School in Yellow Springs, Freddie Lee Collins from Mills Lawn Elementary in Yellow Springs, Danya Ghussin from Dayton Islamic School in Beavercreek, Jeffery Salisbury from Cedarville Elementary School from Cedarville, Nathan Harrison Frey from Cedarville Middle School in Cedarville, Emily Rose Smith from Greeneview Intermediate in Jamestown and Jacob Schlinkert from Greeneview Intermediate in Jamestown.

The bee moderator and pronouncer was Bill Howard, former Baker Middle School principal. Judges were Ron McDermott, adjunct professor at Wright State University, Kari Howard, former teacher and math curriculum director from the Fairborn City Schools, and Barb McDermott current Gifted Coordinator of the Greene Co ESC.  Laura Dailey was the program manager.

Freddie advances to the Regional Spelling Bee, which will be held on Saturday, February 6, 2012 at Sinclair Community College. The winner of the Regional Bee will represent the Dayton area at the State Spelling Bee. The state winner will go on to represent Ohio in the National Spelling Bee, which will be held in Washington D.C.

We all wish Freddie the best of luck at the Regional Spelling and know that she will represent our district well.