‘Sip & Spell Awhile’ set for Thursday

LEESBURG — The Lee County Chamber of Commerce is inviting the community to the The Bindery at Oakland Library Thursday night to have some fun for a good cause.

The chamber, in partnership with the Lee County Library, is hosting the first “Sip & Spell Awhile” adult spelling bee to help raise money that will go to the library and to Lee Family Connection, which, as part of Georgia Family Connection, works to improve the lives of at-risk children and their families through fostering good relationships with the community, increasing policymakers’ awareness of issues and implementing new programs.

“This fundraiser is the first one for Family Connection since becoming a nonprofit earlier this year,” said coordinator Patsy Shirley. “Our Family Connection collaborative work is growing tremendously, so becoming a nonprofit will allow us to do more fundraising and apply for grants, to support our work.”

Shirley added that the portion of the proceeds from the “Sip & Spell Awhile” event going to Family Connection will be used to fund its grassroots “Books for Kids” program through which the organization partners with retired educators to provide age-appropriate books to disadvantaged families.

“It is always a pleasure to partner with the Lee County Chamber of Commerce and the Lee County Library,” Shirley added. “In the end, we all have the same focus; providing our community with resources and services to help our children and families become successful citizens.”

According to Lisa Davis, vice president and director of marketing, memberships and events for the Lee Chamber, the spelling bee competition will consist of four preliminary rounds during which individual members of each team will have to spell words. If words are misspelled that individual will be eliminated but the team will advance.

At the end of the preliminary rounds, each team will be given a white board and a marker and asked to spell words. The team will designate one speller, but the entire team can participate by spelling the word collaboratively. Misspelled words during the elimination round will result in the entire team being eliminated.

When two teams are left, the competition will move to the championship round. In that round, if a team misspells a word the opposing team will have a chance to spell it correctly. If they do, they will also have to spell a second word to win. If they misspell that word, the first team remains in the competition and the cycle continues until one team spells two words during its turn.

If, after three championship rounds, no team has won, the judges will give each team five words to spell, and the team with the most words spelled correctly will be declared the winner.

Davis said the maximum 10 teams have already signed up for the spelling bee, but the chamber is hoping members of the community will come out to cheer those teams on and enjoy some refreshments.

The Sip & Spell adult spelling bee is scheduled from 7-9 p.m. and is free to the public, although donations will be accepted. For more information about the event, contact Davis at (229) 759-2422 or by email at [email protected].