28th Annual Loudoun County Regional Spelling Bee

When The 28th Annual Loudoun County Regional Spelling Bee was completed, James Forcier, an eighth-grader at J. Lupton Simpson Middle School, emerged as the 2010 champion. Forcier spelled both “ferriferous” and “irascibility” correctly in the championship round. (The finalists must spell two consecutive words correctly at the end of the competition to be named champion.)

The bee, held on Thursday, March 5th, at Stone Bridge High School, opened with “recyclable” and ended with “irascibility.”

Forcier will now go on to compete in the 82nd Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee June 2nd through 4th in Washington, D.C. His Loudoun County victory earned him the following prizes:

• Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged, copyright 2002, Merriam-Webster, donated by Merriam-Webster. (This is the official reference of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.)
• A $20 Amazon.com gift certificate, donated by the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
• The Samuel Louis Sugarman Award certificate for a savings bond, donated by Jay Sugarman, Chairman and CEO of iStar Financial who established this award in honor of his father, Samuel Louis Sugarman, who revered academic achievement.
• A one-year subscription to Encyclopedia Britannica Online for Kids, donated by Encyclopedia Britannica.
• A trophy donated by Loudoun County Public Schools.

The competition began with 107 students on stage. Round two began with 45 students; round three featured 15 students and for round four there were eight students left competing. The final rounds were two-man rounds of competitive spelling with runner-up Steven Androphy, a seventh-grader from River Bend Middle School, facing off against Forcier.

Androphy was awarded:

• A $20 Amazon.com gift certificate, donated by Amazon.com.
• A one-year subscription to Encyclopedia Britannica Online for Kids, donated by Encyclopedia Britannica.
• A $10 Books-A-Million gift certificate, donated by Loudoun County Public Schools.

Spelling bee finalists include:

• Rachel Wilmans of Loudoun Country Day School
• Emily Peacock, Home Schooled
• Thomas Garber, Home Schooler
• Andrew Wolfe of Mountain View Elementary School
• Mohammad Zahid of Sterling Middle School
• Ghalia Estaiteyeh of Seneca Ridge Middle School

The Loudoun County spelling bee has been sponsored by the Loudoun Times-Mirror since its inception.

Thomas Pollock, assistant principal at Eagle Ridge Middle School, was the pronouncer for the event. Holly Eva, an English teacher at River Bend Middle School, served as head judge. Retired principal Elizabeth Dotur who coordinated the first six Loudoun County spelling bees; Elizabeth Greenblatt, a secretary at Rolling Ridge Elementary; and Barbara Payne, the managing editor for the Loudoun Times-Mirror, were also judges.

Dr. Michele Schmidt Moore is the spelling bee coordinator and LCPS supervisor of English and language arts. Katherine Powell, general manager of the Loudoun Times-Mirror, and LCPS Superintendent Dr. Edgar B. Hatrick III provided opening remarks for the evening.

Also attending the event were Loudoun County School Board members Robert F. DuPree (Dulles District), J. Warren Geurin (Sterling District) and Thomas E. Reed (At-Large).

Posted by Charles Penifore on Mar 8 2010. Filed under Featured, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry