Spellers help raise money for literacy
The competition was fierce April 11 between the celebrity competitors and their teams for the bragging rights of winning Spellebration, the annual fundraiser and adult spelling bee for AR Kids Read.
In the end, David Lippman of KTHV-TV and his team — the Worker Bees — walked away as the winners. His team was Kateri Balogh, a tutor and employee at AETN, and Sarah Taylor who works at Good Grid.
The other celebrity contestants were Robyn Cisar of KURB-FM, Celia Storey of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Tyler Thomason of KARK-TV and Idris Turner of KIPR-FM. Judging the contest were actual judges, Judge Mark Leverett and Judge Jay Moody.
Erin Hawley and Esperanza Massana-Crane co-chaired the event held at the Albert Pike Memorial Temple.
Lisa Ferris was honored with the Bee the Difference award for tutoring. An assistant professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Ferris just completed her third year of tutoring.
Jay Chesshir, chief executive officer of the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce, was presented the Community Leader Award.
Also at the event, Dionne Jackson was introduced as the incoming executive director of AR Kids Read. She will replace Charlie Conklin who is retiring in May after seven years in the role.
AR Kids Read is a volunteer-based literacy program that pairs struggling readers with trained tutors who donate one hour each week during the school year. The goal is to ensure the students are reading proficiently by the end of third grade.