Student spellers to compete Feb. 11

Student spellers will showcase their linguistic know-how during the North Idaho Spelling Bee starting at 9 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 11 at the Schuler Performing Arts Center at North Idaho College.

The public is welcome to attend.

This is the final competition to determine who from North Idaho will compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

The North Idaho Spelling Bee winner will receive an all-expense paid trip with a guardian to Washington, D.C., to participate in the national bee. The second-place contestant will also win a paid trip with a guardian to D.C. to compete at the Scripps National Spelling Bee if the second place contestant makes it to the 20th round in the North Idaho contest.

The 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee will take place the week of Memorial Day 2023 in National Harbor, Md. Students who place as finalists in the national bee win cash prizes starting at $2,500 for sixth place and $50,000 for the grand champion.

The winner of the North Idaho Spelling Bee will receive a $1,000 cash prize from the Idaho Character Foundation and a gold trophy. Second place will receive a silver trophy. Students who qualify for the national competition will also receive a 2023 United States Mint Proof Set and a year’s online subscription to Encyclopedia Britannica and Webster’s Dictionary.

Sponsoring the local bee is the Idaho Character Foundation, led by Dan and Kathryn Pinkerton. The Coeur d’Alene School District and Deputy Superintendent Michael Nelson are overseeing the event. NIC has donated use of the performing arts center, staff and judges.

The Idaho Character Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes excellent character throughout the community, signed an agreement with the Scripps National Spelling Bee to indefinitely sponsor the same five northern counties the Coeur d’Alene Press and NIC sponsored for 18 years. That agreement includes the foundation paying for all prizes, including the all-expense paid trips to D.C. from May 31 to June 2.

"Participating in the local spelling bees helps encourage so many excellent character traits such as diligence, attentiveness, decisiveness, determination, humility, orderliness and thoroughness," Dan said in a news release. "All of these are important for success in life, as character determines success.”

Nelson anticipates approximately 20 students from North Idaho will compete in the North Idaho Spelling Bee.

“We are very pleased that our fourth to eighth grade students from the five northern counties will again have an opportunity to compete for a spot in the national spelling bee,” Nelson said.

Lakes Middle School eighth grader Emerson Rakes was the spelling champion in 2022 with Amiah Van Hill as first runner-up. Amiah will return to the North Idaho Spelling Bee as a seventh grader.