WEHCO News

Texarkana Gazette Employees Win Corporate Spelling Bee

Texarkana, Texas -- March, 2006 -- In March, the Texarkana Gazette won the city's 12th annual Corporate Spelling Bee, a major fundraiser for the Literacy Council of Bowie and Miller Counties. It was the fifth time in the last six years the Gazette has finished first.

To capture the trophy, team members Shirley Hood, Andrea Miller and Paige Milton correctly spelled the word ‘entrechat,’ a ballet term.

Gazette team member Andrea Miller said "studying the words is critical but good teamwork helps also." Milton, who has been on the team two years, said she studied her words quite a bit before the bee and would write them over and over to learn them. However, she said she was still nervous.

“I didn’t know a spelling bee could be such a nail biter,” she said.

Hood, a copy editor, attributes her success to a lifetime of reading.” If you know how words are constructed and know the origin of the word you can know how it might go. You don’t learn that overnight. You learn it by a lot of reading,” she said.

Sixteen teams competed in the bee. Proceeds from it and a silent auction, held at the First United Methodist Church’s Cabe Center, in Texarkana, Ark., benefited the Literacy Council.

Spelling Bee co-chairpersons Amy Huddleston and Jill Whittington flank the Texarkana Gazette champion spelling bee team in the photo above. They are, pictured from left to right, copy editors Shirley Hood and Andrea Miller and reporter Paige Milton.