Valley County Spelling Bee

The Valley County Spelling Bee was held Feb. 21, at the Lustre Grade School gymnasium with 24 students participating from the Frazer, Hinsdale, Lustre, Nashua and Opheim schools. Jennifer Zerbe, Lisa Neufeld and Kathleen Dambois were judges.

Alicia Olfert gave the group a lesson on Noah Webster who lived 1758 in Connecticut during the American Revolution. His Dictionary with 37 thousand words was published "in 1806 with the goal of developing a distinctly American language."

Participants were Wheeler Dambois, Jersey Cornwell, Cooper Albus, Reese Bowman, Kort Strommen, TJ Miller, Harlo Reddig, Paytin Stenglein, Shaden Batalla, Cassidy Mail, Kaitlyn Old Person, Jamari Johnson, Rose Longee-Degreek, Justin Schiller, Wyatt Sibley, Reata Walden, Brittany Fuller, Sidney Cotton, Holly Hilkemann, Kencia Brown, Aubri Mail, John Yeska, Lana Mason, Kassidy Hentges.

The five who stayed standing in the last round were, Hilkemann, of Lustre, Longee-Degreek, of Nashua, Schiller, of Lustre, Albus, of Hinsdale, and Batalla, of Opheim.

Winning the Valley County Spelling Bee was Justin Schiller, sixth grader of Lustre, and second place was won by Shaden Batalla, fourth grader of Opheim.

Congratulations to these two! The State Spelling Bee will be held March 2, at Montana State University.