Submitted By Jenny Knutsen
On Saturday, March 1st, Will Budde along with forty-two other spellers competed in the Regional Spelling Bee. The bee took place at Augustana College and was sponsored by the Dispatch-Argus, Quad City Times, Olde Town Construction, Modern Woodmen Fraternal Financial, and Arconic. Forty-three spellers all showed up hoping to be the final winner and be on their way to Washington D.C. to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
All students got one practice round where no one would be eliminated. Will’s practice round word was “birdie”. He spelled it perfectly with extreme confidence. After the practice round came the first round. The folks running the bee were not wasting any time as they started with some fairly difficult words. At the end of the first round only twenty-seven spellers were remaining out of forty-three. Sixteen spellers had been eliminated in the first round. Unfortunately, Will was one of them. He went out on the word “gaucho”, spelling it, “goucho”. Off by just one letter and realizing it as soon as he spelled it, Will was eliminated.
The winning student was Lindsey Jessen, an 8th grader from the Marion area. She will go on to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in May. Will, with only being a 7th grader, does have the opportunity to try out for the spelling bee again next year. He says that this is exactly what he plans to do.
