Chimacum Elementary students competed in the school’s first annual spelling bee June 18-19, and the competition was buzzing.

In all, 32 third-graders and 36 fourth-graders competed, and after fierce battles, leading to two winners. In third grade, Ellie Craig and Evan Johnson emerged as the final two competitors, but Craig would be crowned champion after correctly spelling “permission” and “favorite,” in succession, to seal the victory. It came down to Alena-Flynn Freeman and Lorelei Simmons in the fourth grade. The final duel for letters was won by Simmons, who successfully spelled “cooperate” and “beverage” to claim her victory.

Craig and Simmons were awarded championship trophies. As spelling bee winners they also both won a pizza party for their respective classes. The other participants were rewarded with a ribbon and a keychain.

Julia Franz, a speech-language pathologist at Chimacum Elementary, organized the event. She said that the kids were excited and engaged with the spelling bee. “The kids were all really excited. Everybody who participated was just like, ‘It was so cool!’”

Franz acknowledged “they were all just really nervous but really excited. And they all just really wanted to be there. Lots of nerves and lots of feelings. Just a lot of bravery and composure.”

This year’s event is essentially a pilot program to gauge the interest of the students, parents and faculty. With participation numbers nearing 80%, Franz is hopeful that next year the competition will be even bigger.

“My thought is for next year is that we’ll have grade-level spelling bees, and then there will be a school championship where there the winners from each grade level that compete in the auditorium, and that’ll be like an after-school event with parents,” Franz said.

In addition to hosting next year’s event, Franz plans to register Chimacum Elementary with the Scripps National Spelling Bee. If the school qualifies for the SNSB, next year’s event winners will automatically be eligible for the regional competition.

Franz said that she believes that with the success of last week’s spelling, she will find plenty of support to expand the program.

“I think there is interest in doing a bigger, more school-wide spelling bee next year if we do the scripts program,” Franz said. “My thought and hope is that we can get Port Townsend interested as well so that we can even have a school competition, competing against another school district.