Ten teams faced off against each other Saturday in the 25th annual spell-a-thon, sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Twentynine Palms to benefit the Morongo Basin Coalition for Adult Literacy. One by one, teams dropped out when they misspelled aquarium, persistent, dishevelment, equilibrium, reverie, demagoguery, kerflooey, and discotheque. Managing editor Tami Roleff says the last two teams remaining were very evenly matched….
The final two teams–the Letterhead Shrikes, composed of Joe Zarki, Marilyn Lutz, and Tasha LaDoux, and Cathy and the Lascivious Lads, made up of Cathy Itnyre, David Norton, and Collin McLaughlin—went 12 rounds spelling and misspelling words before a winner was crowned Saturday at the 25th annual Spell-a-Thon. (In spelling bees, if a team misspells a word, the other team must spell it correctly, and then the next word, in order to win. If both teams misspell the word, neither team is knocked out.) In the final round, Cathy’s team misspelled pirogue, which the Shrikes then correctly spelled. Then in order to win the spell-a-thon, they correctly spelled the next word of oppugn, meaning to oppose or contradict, to win bragging rights of being the best spellers in the Morongo Basin. Third place honors went to the Condor Elementary Kids team, made up of fourth grader Adrianna Favors, sixth grader Stephanie Hernandez, and 21-year-old Karla Barraza. Cathy and the Lascivious Lads once again won top honors for bringing in the most pledges: $1,342.
