Morongo Basin Spell-A-Thon raises funds for libraries and spelling acumen for teams
The Annual Morongo Basin Libraries Spell-A-Thon was held Saturday (March 21) and it successfully raised funds for our area’s libraries.
11 teams and their supporters — about 60 people in all — gathered at the Yucca Valley Community Center for the event. Organized by the Friends of the Morongo Basin Libraries, the Spell-A-Thon raises funds for the summer reading programs and other literacy efforts in the Basin. Team pledges, sponsorships, and raffles yielded more than $5,500 that will be shared by the Joshua Tree, Twentynine Palms and Yucca Valley libraries.
First Place went to the Democrats of the Morongo Basin’s Blue Wave team — Stephanie Ballard. Deborah Dunaway and Phyllis Moss. They won the event and $100 each by successfully spelling Zaibatsu, a word of Japanese origin meaning a large family-controlled enterprise that dominated Japan’s economy from 1868 to the end of WWII.
Copper Mountain College’s Oleaginous Orthographers took second place. The team was comprised of Colin Maclaughin, Elsa Cuevas and Christina Kennedy.
The team raising the most pledges was Reading Between the Wines book club — Kimberly Elorza, Sherry Harwin and Cathy Zarakov.
The art piece for the event’s major raffle was painted by local juried artist Janis Commentz. It was a still life of flowers and glassware. It was won by Stephanie Vargas, a local resident.
