THOMASVILLE - Competing against the best spellers from other local schools, Allison Stauffer took first place in the Thomas County Area Schools Spelling Bee and Jordan Bradshaw came in second place. The two 8th graders both represented Brookwood School.
Stauffer, the daughter of Lori and Jay Stauffer of Thomasville, will represent Thomas County in the Big Bend Spelling Bee in Tallahassee on Feb. 13.
Other local participants were the best spellers from schools in the county: Joey Dennard, 4th grade, from Cross Creek Elementary; Asa Harbin and Tyler Knuckles, both 5th graders, from Jerger School; Jaquez Lee, 4th grade, and Ta'Diazah Williams, 5th grade, of Scott School; Luke Mitchell, 8th grade, Thomasville Christian School; Lacey Williams, 8th grade, of Thomas County Middle School; and Kerrinton Banks and Bronwyn Gilbert, both 8th graders, representing MacIntyre Park Middle School and the Scholars Academy.
"Each school could send their first place and runner up from the school bee to the competition," explained Ashley Harper, who served as a judge of the event, along with Kathy Thompson of Cross Creek Elementary School. "We used the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee District Word List for 2010 as our list," added Harper, the director of the Lower and Middle Schools at Brookwood and the district organizer of the spelling bee.
The competition was held Thursday at the Old Thomas County Middle School Auditorium and was hosted by Angela McCabe of Thomas County Middle School, who also pronounced the words for the spelling bee.
"After four rounds of spelling words it was down to Allison and Jordan," Harper explained. "They went eight more rounds against one another to determine the champion. The championship word was 'centennial.'"
The two top local spellers have traditionally been champions of their grade level spelling bees for several years.
"They are both very capable students," Harper said. "In the 7th grade, Allison was recognized as a national Duke TIP scholar and Jordan a state Duke TIP Scholar. They are also very well rounded. Both are accomplished pianists and Jordon also excels at baseball as well as playing basketball."
