Literacy is part of who we are as Presbyterians
FPC of Tyler participates in Spelling Bee
It came down to the words ecchymosis and blitzkrieg for the Tyler Junior College team to win the Literacy Council’s 31st annual Spelling Bee held August 2 at Green Acres Baptist Church Crosswalk Center. The second-place team was from the Tyler Morning Telegraph and third place went to the Genesis Group.
The theme for the event was ‘Spelling Through the Decades” and First Presbyterian Church of Tyler members showed up dressed in costumes representing the 1960s ready to support the Rev. Dr. Stuart Baskin and Sally Smith-Garmon along with alternate Mitch Adams. Costumes worn by the members included an impersonation of Elvis, many NASA researchers and scientists and a few flower children. The Rev. Dr. Baskin dressed in costume with tape around the center of his glasses and the Rev. Brendan McLean was dressed as himself.
Ultimately it was the word ‘spaghetti’ that stumped the First Presbyterian team, leading to elimination in the first round. The team was given a golden box of tissues as a prize for being the first team out of the competition.
The Literary Council has been hosting the Corporate Spelling Bee for over 30 years, and the Literacy Council uses FPC of Tyler as a host for some of their programs.
Literacy has long been a staple of the Presbyterian Church, as explained by the Rev. Dr. Baskin.
“The Literacy Council is a jewel in Tyler. It is right up our alley as Presbyterians. We have always been about education and about basic literacy. For 500 years, that has been part of our schtick as Presbyterians. Scotland was one of the poorest countries in Europe. Being literate was born out of the idea that if the Bible was going to be available to read, then everyone should be able to read it. By the mid-1500s, Scotland was Presbyterian, and though poor, it had the highest literacy rate in Europe. For us to support the Literacy Council is right on track for Presbyterians. We also host a significant portion of their program,” stated Dr. Baskin.
The First Presbyterian team did not come away empty handed as Ginny Mattox won the coveted prize of winning Chic-Fil-A for a year after correctly answering the Audience Spell Quiz portion of the event. Audience members paid $25 for a chance to win one of three prizes offered in a raffle if they chose the correct spelling of five random words printed on a test sheet. The words were bruisewort, tomatillo, volunteered, acalculia and hubristically.
During the eight-round spelling challenge, some of the words that spellers were asked to correctly spell were alkaline, coincidence, spaghetti, genealogy, scythe, unerringly, xanthic, hippogriff, masquerade, phalanges, infancy and phenomenon. There were a few stumbles over words such as ophthalmic, hebdomad (defined as a group of seven) and velodrome (defined as a track.)
The Literacy Council presented the Star Student Award to Anayeli Gonzalez, from Guanajuato, Mexico. She and her husband were both successful students of the Literacy Council.
First Presbyterian Church of Tyler was a ‘Honey Bee’ sponsor of the event. The Costume Award went to First Christian Church and the Spirit Award to Protho, Wihelmi, & Co.
There were multiple teams from the Tyler area representing their companies. Those teams were: Brookshire’s Grocery Company, First Christian Church-Tyler, First Presbyterian Church of Tyler, Genesis Group, Henry & Peters P.C., HOLA, Jasper Ventures, Inc., TrueBlue, Prothro Wilhelmi & Co., PLLC, Southside Bank, South Tyler Rotary, Squyres & Co., Trane Technologies, Tyler Junior College, Tyler Morning Telegraph and VME Process, Inc.
Dr. Baskin did have a few words to say about next year’s spelling bee.
“The teams that were doing well were writing down words, comparing them and then getting up to spell them. That is the secret. This was our first time that we have participated in the spelling bee. We will be back for a second year. One thing is guaranteed, we will do better next year,” said Dr. Baskin.