Seventh-grader Jaiden Juan represented Beaver Dam in the Mohave County Spelling Bee in Kingman, Ariz., on Friday, Feb. 8. From a field of 34 participants, all of whom were top finishers at their district level, Juan finished 10th.
Juan spelled out on the word GESTAPO. Debating on whether the word was spelled "gestapo" or "guestapo", he guessed the wrong one. The competition is keen, even at the county level, so we are very proud of Jaiden for his efforts.
The top finisher, Moses Jehng, is a seventh-grader at Mohave Valley Junior High. He will represent our county at the Arizona spelling bee next month. The winner there will go on to represent Arizona at the national spelling bee.
Juan advanced to the county spelling bee after finishing first Jan .9 at the Littlefield School District’s Beaver Dam schools spelling bee.
There was good attendance with students from the elementary, middle and high schools representing the Arizona Strip communities. The parents of the spellers were well attended also. There were 16 spellers from third grade up to eighth grade participating.
Juan also won the contest last year and placed fourth place, higher than any former student from Beaver Dam.
Second place in the Jan. 9 spelling bee went to Tanner Reber, in sixth grade and third place was to Juliana Scott, a fifth-grader. The competition was very tough for these last three spellers.
One of our judges, Jack Sullivan, a former teacher from Beaver Dam Elementary said that Beaver Dam has been sending spellers to the Mojave County Spelling Bee in Kingman since about 1985. He was the first teacher to take students to the county meet from here.
Thank you to all the contestants who participated in this year’s district-wide spelling bee.
We would also like to thank Juan’s family, especially grandmother Mrs. Maria Stevens, and Middle School teacher Sheila Summerhays, along with all Juan's other teachers, who spent so much time supporting and helping him this year to be ready for the spelling bee in Kingman.
Special thanks to Juan for representing us in Kingman.
We are looking forward for next year’s spelling bee and invite all to participate with us.