It was crunch time for Lily Ipe while she spelled word after word after word at the Greater Hightstown Juniorettes’ annual spelling bee that was staged on Jan. 28.
“I was freaking out. I was really nervous,” said 10-year-old Lily, who is in the fifth grade at the Perry L. Drew Elementary School in the East Windsor Regional School District.
“It was my last chance to do something like that. I never thought I would get this far. I lost out last year on ‘speechless,’” Lily said.
This year, it came down to one word – nickel.
And this year, Lily aced it. It took 20 rounds of back-and-forth words thrown at the better spellers in the contest to determine the best speller.
Lily’s reaction when she won?
“I was really happy,” she responded.
Lily out-spelled Ashwini Nair, who is in the fourth grade, to claim first place. Ashwini placed second, and Akhilesh Ramesh, who is in the fifth grade, placed third among the 33 contestants – 22 fourth-grade students and 11 fifth-grade students.
Lily, Ashwini and Akilhesh are all students at the Perry L. Drew Elementary School. Students from the Perry L. Drew and Grace N. Rogers elementary schools competed in the spelling bee, which was held at the Grace N. Rogers Elementary School.
Lily said she is a good speller because she is an avid reader. She said she loves to read, and there is rarely a word that she does not know. And if she does find a word that she does not know, she will look it up or ask her parents.
The words for the spelling bee are given out in advance, Lily said. There are 120 words on the list, but sometimes, the judges will ask for a word that is not on the list – and “nickel” was one of those words that was not on the list, she said. It was a surprise word.
Lily, Ashwini and Akilhesh all received cash prizes. All of the contestants received coupons from Dairy Queen for taking part in the spelling bee, which has been sponsored by the Greater Hightstown Juniorettes for more than 15 years. The judges were Lee Brown, Dale Grubb and Elaine Villani.
Meanwhile, the top three winners will now move on to the District Spelling Bee on Feb. 23, which will be held at the New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs’ state headquarters in New Brunswick.
The top three winners at the District Spelling Bee will advance to the New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs’ State Spelling Bee on March 2, also held at the federation’s headquarters in New Brunswick.
The Greater Hightstown Juniorettes is sponsored by the Friday Club of Hightstown, which is a member of the New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Clubs.
The Greater Hightstown Juniorettes is made up of young women ages 12 to 18 whose primary focus is to serve the community by volunteering at such events as the spelling bee and face-painting at RISE’s holiday party.