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Sunrise Rotary snags second win at city-wide spelling bee For the second time in 4 years, the Claremont Sunrise Rotary has won bragging rights as the best spellers in town. The title was earned at the Friends of the Claremont Library's annual Spelling Bee contest and fundraiser held at Taylor Hall on Sunday. In the final round of the competition, Sunrise Rotary's "Phun Club" managed to correctly spell "rubefacient" which means to produce redness, or a substance that irritates the skin, causing redness. The competition went by quickly as only one team made it beyond the fourth and final round. The field of 21 teams had whittled down to 9 through the last round but none were unable to match the Phun Club. “As a Rotarian, we always enjoying participating both in community and international projects, so this is one more way to support our community," said David Seccombe, a member of the winning team. "For us, we try to promote many literary and youth project and this dovetails nicely with both of those goals." The Claremont Community Foundation was stumped by “ormolu,” the Rotary Club of Claremont missed “pentateuchal,” CUSD Principals guessed wrong on “sederunt,” the League of Women Voters missed “esclavage,” the Jane Austen Book Group couldn’t get “gammelost,” the Village Marketing Group was undone by “seicento”, the Claremont Education Foundation was thrown off by “ghurry” and the Claremont COURIER team misspelled “rapprochement.”
In addition to the spelling competition, an award was handed out for best costume, which went to the Claremont Unified School District Board of Education with their beekeeper hats and colorful spelling bee t-shirts. The Community Friends of International Students won the title as best fan club with their waving flags of lands near and far. The event generates funds for the Friends of the Library's ongoing programs to add books and computers to the library, the Claremont authors project and bringing in guest speakers and poets to the library. "We’re really happy how the event brings the entire community together," said Library Friend Laura Bollinger. "It's great to see so much support from all different ages groups. Often the community comes out like this for sports events but this was a way to celebrate literacy and that's one of the key missions of the Friends of the Library." Also at the event, the Friends of the Claremont Library announced the next book for their "Claremont on the Same Page" series. The program hopes to inspire readers in the community to read the same book each year so that it can be discussed and debated with the same kind of passion as a political debate. This year's book is The Soloist by Steve Lopez, a columnist for the LA Times. The book details Mr. Lopez's chance meeting with a homeless and mentally ill man, Nathaniel Ayers, and the inspiring story that follows. "There are many issues that affect our community, homelessness, mental illness and being part of the larger urban community urban," said Naomi Howland, a Friend of the Library. An author discussion by Mr. Lopez is planned for Sunday, October 4 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. The location has not yet been decided. Upcoming events involving Mr. Lopez and book discussions on The Soloist will be announced throughout the coming months. —Tony Krickl |
