PORT ANGELES — Lexie Peabody of Jefferson Elementary School won the annual citywide spelling bee by spelling the word “environment” in front of some 75 onlookers last month.
Ellie Engel of the private Olympic Christian School won second place at the May 21 bee for fourth-grade students in the Port Angeles City Council chambers, while Holli Butler of Franklin Elementary won third place.
They each received Wal-Mart gift certificates and a “bee” trophy.
All of the 21 participants — gleaned from public and private elementary schools in Port Angeles — received “bee” pencils and paper pads.
“It was reallycool,” said Marsha Robin, the pronouncer for the bee sponsored by the Soroptimist International of Port Angeles-Jet Set club.
On Sunday, Robin said she had been compiling a list of all the words that were not successful “because the kids wanted it.”
She said the bee was “a great opportunity to watch young adults learn poise.”
The bee’s winner “came full circle as an individual, from being very, very afraid of being in front of a group . . . to a young lady with her head held high,” Robin added.
Participants were from the Franklin, Jefferson, Dry Creek, Hamilton and Roosevelt schools in the Port Angeles School District, as well as the private schools of Queen of Angels and Olympic Christian School.
Three finalists from each elementary school, chosen in their school bees, were invited to the citywide bee.
Other bee finalists and their schools are:
• Dry Creek: Cheyenne Johnson-Stimbert, Duncan Keohokalole and Maegan Vogtman.
• Franklin: Noah McGoff and Grace Sanwald.
• Hamilton: Hailey Hollingsworth, Kaitlynn Vessar and Hope Winsor.
• Jefferson: Sierra Jewell and Kylee Reid.
• Olympic Christian: Jasmine Gauthun and Haylie Newton.
• Queen of Angels: Molly Braaten, Colleen Carpenter and Denver Kedish.
• Roosevelt: Haley Locke, Molly Holm and Amber Hamilton.
Soroptimist judges were Marian Mertz, Bille Grauberger and Jean Fairchild.
