Spelling bee season has arrived, and students across the state are preparing for the 2025 C Spire Foundation Mississippi Spelling Bee as volunteers look to fundraise for the event.
As the November deadline approaches, 271 schools across 46 counties have already registered for the competition, MSB Executive Director Lois Kappler said.
“We’d like our schools to be registered … by Nov. 1 because the bees are starting to take place already,” Kappler said. “Classrooms are starting to study, and they’re moving toward those school and district bees.”
Registering by the Nov. 1 deadline ensures the students will have access to Scripps’ study resource portal, which includes rules and spelling lists, Kappler said. Schools can still register after the deadline though, she said.
In the lead up to the state bee, students across the state will first compete in classroom, school, district and county bees before the top three spellers from each county compete in an online semifinal competition.
The top competitors in the semifinal will advance to the state competition, which will likely include about 25 students this year, Kappler said.
“We’re trying very hard to keep it at 25,” she said. “That’s a manageable group for a state contest. … But we kind of just have to make those decisions once we see where the natural break is in the scores.”
Next year’s state competition is scheduled to be held March 22 at Mississippi University for Women. In the meantime, Kappler said the bee is looking to raise $18,000 to cover production expenses, televise the competition and send the two winning spellers to the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., next year.
“Of course, we’ve got to cover all our expenses, but we want to increase our funding so that we can increase the prize money that we give to our top two winners,” Kappler said. “… We want to be sure that no family is strapped or that it is a (financial) burden for their child to go.”
The Scripps National Spelling Bee program in Mississippi has come a long way in the last few years, from being in danger of disappearing to seeing growing participation and financial support.
When the Mississippi Association of Educators pulled out as a sponsor in 2021, The Commercial Dispatch, the Columbus-Lowndes Chamber of Commerce and MUW stepped in to save the bee ahead of the 2022 competition.
The C Spire Foundation also began partnering with the Mississippi Spelling Bee in 2022, and became the bee’s exclusive regional partner this year. Tanya Rankin, vice president for C Spire Foundation, said it’s hard to believe it will only be the third year the foundation has sponsored the bee.
“It has been such a joy to experience the spelling bee and see the excitement and pride of the Mississippi kids who participate,” she wrote in a text to The Dispatch.
The MSB is the perfect example of the type of education event that lifts up students, she said.
“The spelling bee is not easy,” Rankin said. “It takes critical thinking, problem solving and sometimes getting over a little case of the nerves to succeed. It’s amazing to see the confidence the bee competitions build and we are excited to see who comes out on top for the Mississippi Spelling Bee championship.”
Kappler said any donations to the MSB can be taken or mailed to Edward Jones, 100 Fifth St. S., Columbus, MS 39701 with “Mississippi Spelling Bee” in the memo line. She said checks can also be deposited to the “MS Spelling Bee” at any Bank First location.
McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.
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