Emily Fung Spells Her Way to First at 4th Annual Rye-Harrison Bee

– By Jim Byrne –

The correct spellings of words like “poltergeist”, “maraschino”, and “pasteurize” failed to elude Emily Fung March 31 in the 4th Annual Rye-Harrison Spelling Bee, as the RMS eighth grader outlasted 59 other middle school students to win the contest.

Emily was awarded the first place trophy and a $100 prize – donated by the Rotary Club of Rye – after spelling “hydrangea” correctly on the stage of the Louis M. Klein Middle School auditorium in Harrison. The runner-up was Dylan Dobrenis, an eighth grader from Harrison.

It was the third consecutive year a student from Rye Middle School won the event. Thirty competitors from each school earned their way to the stage by excelling in spelling bees held in each language class of the two middle schools. Peter Gouveia of Rye and Emily Margolis of Harrison were the teachers who organized the bee, which uses rules and words from the Scripps competition.

Many of the words that came up were of the edible variety, including “kielbasa”, “jambalaya”, “gazpacho”, “marzipan”, and yes, even “raisiny”. As in, that bran cereal is quite raisiny. Only 22 students remained after the first round.

As with most school spelling bees, there were more than a few humorous moments. Harrison’s Will Hein jokingly asked the judges if he could “have the spelling of the word, please, because it would be very helpful.” Another Harrison student instigated a “Who’s on first?” moment with Mr. Gouveia. “The word is ‘kudzu’.” “Kudzu?” “Kudzu.” “Kudzu?” “Kudzu.” And on and on it went.

Rye eighth grader Ross Mulkerin caused laughter when he said, “Come again?” in response to being asked to spell “wafflestomper”. Georgy Aristov, a Harrison eighth grader, was the crowd favorite though, lasting until the final three. He was eliminated when he incorrectly spelled “airedale”, but admitted he “might need to think about this” before answering.