My Day at the Spelling Bee

FNN reporter Nadean Talley interviews Michael Cooper, III at NBC4.

On Wednesday, March 21, 2007, I went to The 25TH Annual Spelling Bee at NBC 4 which was sponsored by The Washington Informer, Friendship Public Charter School and NBC 4. I got to meet Ron Burke, Director of Advertising and Marketing for The Washington Informer; Pat Lawson Muse, news anchor for NBC4; Denise Rolark Barnes, publisher of The Washington Informer; Gloria Reaves, Pat Bonds, Patricia Clouden and Deborah Hensley who are all media specialists and judges in the Bee.

I got to interview four of the contestants: Michael Cooper III, Federico Marchese, Olivia Lasche and Stephanie Guzman. Michael Cooper is from Friendship Public Charter School, Southeast Academy. He was contestant number 9 and he lasted five rounds. In the fifth round, he misspelled the word F-I-L-I-B-U-S-T-E-R. He spelled it P-H-I-L-I-B-U-S-T-E-R. Even though he didn’t make first, second or third place, doesn’t mean he is still not a winner. I think he did a really good job. And he said that he will compete in the Bee again next year. So, Michael, I hope you do really well next year. Hey, maybe you might come in first place next time. Next comes “our” fourth place winner, Fedrico Machese. who won a prize of $100. He is in the sixth grade and attends Mann Elementary School in NW Washington. He attended the bee “bee” fore and did pretty well. When I interviewed him, I noticed that he spoke really well and that he knew what he was talking about. He seemed very confident and is bi-lingual in Spanish and English. After my interview with Fredrico, I interviewed the leading champs (for now) Stephanie and Olivia who came in first and second place, of course. Both of them were so confident and seemed so comfortable as if they had done it before. Oh yeah, they have been in the spelling bee before. That is interesting. Maybe they should be in it again next year. “Our” first-place winner, Stephanie, won 1,000 DOLLARS !!!!!! That’s alot!!!!!! And “Our” second-place winner, Olivia won 500 DOLLARS which is a lot too!!!!!. I wondered what they’re going to do with all that money. So, I asked them and you know what? They didn’t even know. That’s crazy, but okay. If I won all that cash, I wouldn’t know what to do with it myself. It’s too bad I didn’t get to talk to “Our” third place winner. But that’s okay.

WOW! All this talk about The Spelling Bee is making me think about being in it next year….Bye Bye. Congrats to Friendship student Michael Cooper III (pictured here) for a great job.