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2 • March 2019 Spelling Bee

Third time’s the charm

TRIPLE CHAMP: Sykes returns to regional bee three years in a row
By MALLORY DIEFENBACH
mdiefenbach@batavianews.com
LIVONIA — The returning champ has
come back with her crown.
For the third year in a row, Reagan
Sykes has won Livonia’s spelling bee
which is open to fifth through eighth
graders.
“I’m very proud; we haven’t had a
triple-repeat champion,” said Deborah
Sykes, a 6th grade teacher at Livonia.
“She won in 6th grade when we didn’t
have a sponsor, that was the year the
Buffalo News dropped sponsorship.
DAILY NEWS FILE PHOTO So we just held a spelling bee, but we
Daily News Publisher Michael Messerly poses with four of the students who weren’t sure what we were going to do
competed in the 2017 Western New York Regional Scripps Spelling Bee. From with her.”
left to right are Aubrey Hamm, Andrew Beal, Meghan Fuchs and Madalyn This year, now in eighth grade, Rea-
Bochicchio. This year’s bee will be held at Batavia High School March 22-23. gan clinched the win with the word “ju-
niper,” though she did have a good run
something she wanted to do for awhile
and have another chance maybe at win-
ning a third year in a row. She admitted
she was surprised to win for a third year
in a row, saying her competitors were
really good and she was really nervous
about going on to regionals.
“I’ll probably study more than I did
last year, definitely,” Reagan said. For
those who are interested in competing
in the spelling bee, she wanted to assure
it’s not as bad as they might think it is.
Her favorite part about spelling bee
contests is watching her friends freak
out in the auditorium when she gets a
word right. Reagan is also excited to see
Emily Mike from Mt. Morris again, who
she befriended last year.
Out of all the classes, Reagan said she
enjoys science the most and is interest-

Tompkins Bank of Castile for her money from a 6th grader. Rea-
gan said she came back because it was
ed in pursuing a career in the medical
career.

steps up for spelling bee

STELLAR SPELLERS: The 2019 Western New York Regional
Scripps Spelling Bee takes place this Friday and Saturday
By BRIAN QUINN
bquinn@batavianews.com
BATAVIA — Contestants will step
onto the regional stage this Saturday
at Batavia High School, in hopes of ad-
vancing to the Scripps National Spell-
ing Bee in May.
The Batavia Daily News/Livingston
County News regional competition will
start at 10 a.m. in the auditorium. The
Opening Ceremony will be at 7 p.m. Fri-
day.
The event this year is sponsored by
Tompkins Bank of Castile.
Messerly said the regional spelling
bee in Batavia began because media
companies in Buffalo and Rochester
abandoned it.
“We get great feedback from the
participating schools, but we certainly
need more schools to participate in or-
der to keep it running,” he said. “This is
very much a labor of love for The Daily
News and the LCN, but it is also an ex-
pensive event to host, so we need more
schools’ sixth– to eighth-grade schools
to be involved.”
This year, the two newspapers are
joined by a third sponsor, Tompkins
Bank of Castile.
“This is our first year of doing
that,” said Krysia Mager, assistant vice
president of Tompkins Bank of Castile.
“When we spoke with Michael Mes-
serly and he informed us of the oppor-
tunity. We thought it would be a great
opportunity for us — just to be able to
partner with the Batavia Daily News in
helping publicize this great event for
kids.”
Tompkins Bank of Castile is known
around the GLOW Region (Genesee,
Livingston, Orleans and Wyoming
counties) for sponsoring many events,
from UMMC and Junior Achievement
to many youth sports teams, Little
League and other organizations. They
also participate in the United Way Day
of Caring in each area of the region.
However, employees went above
and beyond doing volunteer work, as
close to 13,000 hours were logged by
Tompkins Bank of Castile employees
alone.
“We encourage our employees to
give back to the community and be in-
volved,” said Mager. “Last year, we to-
taled close to 13,000 volunteer hours in
the community. We don’t just donate
to different groups and organizations
like Kiwanis, Rotary and Habitat for
Humanity, our employees are involved
and volunteeer with these groups.”
The spelling bee will also bring fam-
ilies to the area from all over New York. DAILY NEWS FILE PHOTO
Now in eighth grade, Reagan Sykes is a three-time spelling bee winner at Livonia
See BEE T4 Middle School.
 Spelling Bee March 2019 • 3

A story of sweet success Mt. Morris sixth grader heads

VICTORY: LeRoy seventh grader finally wins school’s spelling bee
By MALLORY DIEFENBACH
mdiefenbach@batavianews.com
LE ROY — After losing last year,
Wyatt Dziedzic brought his A-game
this time around to represent Le
Roy in the Western New York Re-
gional Spelling Bee.
Out of the seventh and eighth
grade classrooms, 22 students vol-
unteered to compete in front of the
whole middle school in Le Roy’s
fifth annual spelling bee compe-
tition. Going for about an hour,
which Tim Knisley, an 8th grade
teacher at Le Roy, said was unusu-
al, Dziedzic clinched the win with
the word “caterpillar.”
“Wyatt’s actually a seventh grad-
er, so it’s nice to see a seventh grad-
er be successful over one of the
eighth graders,” he said. “A lot of
people in the community are excit-
ed for him to represent us.”
Dziedzic admitted what got him
to compete in the spelling bee in
the first place was a bribe from his
friends.
“What got me to do the spelling
bee was a bribe from one of my
friends that if I participated in the
spelling bee they would give me an
ice cream,” he admitted “Everyone
knows you can’t pass up free ice
cream so I was in.”
Dziedzic continued to say he was
shocked when he won, not even ex-
pecting to get in the Top 3, assum-
ing he would more likely get in the
Top 5. He didn’t study at all consid-
ering he was in it for the ice cream,
not to win.
With science as his favorite class,
Dziedzic’s looking into future to
study at R.I.T or Virginia Tech for
engineering in order to work as me-
chanic or a similar job.
to regionals for the first time
By MALLORY DIEFENBACH
mdiefenbach@batavianews.com
MT. MORRIS — In
the final showdown of
nine sixth graders, Hol-
ly Lin took the gold with
“mockingly.”
Danielle Dean, ele-
mentary principal, said
throughout the day they
had the young-
er students
have their own
spelling bees to
get used to the
format starting
with a 1st grade
spelling bee.
However, only
the 6th grad-
ers go on to the
Western New
York Regional
Spelling Bee.
Last year, Lin also came very nervous during the
in first for the fifth grade spelling bee and did a lot
spelling bee. of studying to prepare.
“(Holly) is a very in- Dean gave her a large
volved student right now. book to prepare for the
She’s part of our newspa- regional competition,
per club,” Dean said. “A and said she actually
very sweet girl, she’s part reached out to one of the
of our student council.”
Lin, 12, said she was See DEAN T7
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4 • March 2019 Spelling Bee

Bee-lieve it or not, he’s back

REGIONAL CHAMP: Homeschooler Noah Clark will compete again this year
By MALLORY DIEFENBACH going against other kids who competetion with the word
mdiefenbach@batavianews.com are great spellers. To pre- “succeed,” Noah admitted
BERGEN — The champ is pare, Noah’s mother asks he is little nervous to go into
back. him words from the spelling the regional competition this
After winning the Western list. time, fearing he might not be
New York Regional Spell- “Last year it took us awhile good enough anymore and
ing Bee and cinching a spot to get through the list, but someone else might be bet-
at the 91st Scripps National this year since I’ve seen the ter than him. For others who
Spelling Bee last year, Noah words before and remem- are entering a spelling bee
Clark, an eighth grader at bered them, now we can go contest for the first time, he
the Bee-lieve Homeschool through it quickly,” he said. suggests writing down pro-
Association, recently battled “Maybe 15 to 30 minutes a nunciations, walking away
against 12 other students in day.”
his age group from different Winning the homeschool See CLARK T9
homeschool families for the
chance to compete in this
year’s regional bee again.
“We had over three hours
Do you have HEEL pain
of spelling because these
kids knew their words. It was or ARCH pain?
crazy,” said Sarah Clark, No-
ah’s mother. HEEL SPUR SYNDROME/PLANTAR FASCIITIS
Noah said he is excited is a common problem among people who are active. It starts as
to come back to the region-
a dull intermittent pain in the heel which may progress to a sharp
al spelling bee, hoping to
win and compete again in persistent pain. Classically, it is worse in the morning with the first
the Scripps National Spell- few steps, after sitting, after standing, or after walking.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CLARK FAMILY
Noah Clark poses with his mom Sarah and dad Tim at the 2018 ing Bee, but it is also nerve • Plantar fasciitis often begins with irritation and tearing of the
Scripps National Spelling Bee in Maryland. wracking because he will be fibrous band of tissue on the bottom of the foot, which may
eventually result in the formation of a heel spur.

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Spelling Bee March 2019 • 5
6 • March 2019 Spelling Bee

Warsaw Middle celebrates super spellers

WARSAW — For more than
50 rounds, eighth graders Ama-
ya Martin and Andrea Straub
and seventh grader Sydney
Goulet each approached the
microphone that stood on the
stage of Warsaw Middle/High
School.
A group of the 21 best spellers
at Warsaw Middle School had
been narrowed down to these
three super spellers. While their
peers and teachers watched,
Amaya, Andrea and Sydney
took turns mastering words pro-
vided by the Scripps National
Spelling Bee.
In the end, Amaya prevailed
as the winner.
Principal Kim D’Amico, with
the help of teachers Keely Back-
es and Darlene Clark, organized
Warsaw Middle School’s partic-
ipation in the Scripps National
Spelling Bee. The preliminary
round was held during grades
6-8 English Language Arts class-
es using Google Classroom. The
top seven spellers from each
grade advanced to the finals,
which was held on Feb. 28.
In preparation, students were
given the Scripps National Spell-
ing Bee booklet to study. The
WCS Spelling Bee progressed
through so many rounds, a 9th
grade list was used to finish the
competition. Amaya advanc-
es to the regional competition,
which will be held at Batavia
High School on March 23. That
event will be sponsored by The
Daily News. She will study the
2019 edition of “Spell It! The
Scripps National Spelling Bee
Study Booklet for School Cham-
pions,” which includes 1,150
words.
The following students par-
ticipated in the WCS Spelling
Bee: sixth graders Brenna Ack-
erman-Gay, Nick Cummins,
Lukas Felix, Airianna Goodell,
Madison Kaminski, Zoe Poz-
zobon and Troy Tyrpa; seventh
graders Kyla Christie, Joey Ger-
negliaro, Sydney Goulet, Joe
Harris, Ethan Moore, Kaden
Reed and Colleen Snyder; and
eighth graders Ethan Beyer,
Courtney Daniels, Jacob De-
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Badts, Reese Grisewood, Amaya
Martin, Andrea Straub and Ken- Andrea Straub, Amaya Martin and Sydney Goulet placed second, first and third respectively on Feb. 28
dyl Thornton. during Warsaw Central School’s Scripps National Spelling Bee qualifiier.

39 Years in Business “Family Owned and Operated”

Spelling off the wall
By MALLORY DIEFENBACH
mdiefenbach@batavianews.com
ALEXANDER — Battling
through 30 students to come out
on top, sixth grader Riley Wall
will be representing Alexander
Middle School at the Western
New York Regional Spelling Bee.
The spelling bee started out
in the classroom before 30 stu-
dents moved on to compete in
front of the whole school, where
Wall clinched the win with the
word “relinquish.”
“(Riley) is a very good student
— very studious, always on top
of things,” said Kathy Koers, Al-
exander Middle School English
teacher.
This was the 11-year-old’s
first spelling bee, and Wall said
she was pretty nervous to stand
up in front of the entire school
and compete, admitting she
was surprised she won.
“I should have studied more
— I studied a little bit, but I
should have studied more,” she
admitted, adding that she plans
to make flashcards to help her
study for the regional competi-
tion. Her advice to anyone con-
sidering competing in a spell-
Good Luck
Wyatt
ing bee is to go for it and not be
as nervous as they think they
should be.
Wall said her favorite class is
art, and is pretty sure she wants
to be a cosmetologist when
she’s older.
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 Spelling Bee March 2019 • 7

LOOKING BACK AT LAST YEAR’S BEE

Winners and runners up of the 2018 regional bee

(Note: This article original-
ly ran in the Livingston County
News in March 2018.)
By BEN BEAGLE
ben@livingstonnews.com
Noah Clark, a homeschool
student from Bergen, was the
winner of this morning’s West-
ern New York Regional Spelling
Bee at Genesee Community
College.
Noah, a seventh-grade stu-
dent at G.R.A.C.E Leah Home
School in Bergen, survived 12
rounds of competition, out-
See 2018 T11

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Bee
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DAILY NEWS FILE PHOTO 570 East Main Street • Batavia, NY 14020
Contestants at the 2018 Western New York Regional Spelling Bee at Genesee Community College Cell: 585.813.3750 • Home: 585.343.1773
watch as a fellow competitor attempts to spell a word. In the back left is Noah Clark of Bee-lieve Office: 585.409.2112 • Fax: 585.343.8502
Homeschool Association and in the front middle is Emily Mike of Mount Morris, both of who will susankautz@howardhanna.com
HowardHanna.com
compete again in this year’s spelling bee.

Dean
From T3
teachers to ask for help study-
ing.
“I like the studying part,”
Lin said when asked what was
her favorite part of the spelling
bee. “It’s fun.”
She suggested for anyone 4425 W. Saile Drive
Batavia, NY
who wants to compete in the
spelling bee to study hard and (585) 343-9598
don’t be too nervous. Hours: Mon-Weds: 9-6; Thurs: 9-8;
Her favorite subject is math Fri: 9-6; Sat: 9-4; Closed Sun.
and when she becomes an
adult, Lin said she wants to www.stanshd.com
study psychology.

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8 • March 2019 Spelling Bee

Second time spelling champ returns from Mt. Morris

BACK-TO-BACK YEARS: Mike beat out 60
fellow students to hold onto her winning title
By MALLORY DIEFENBACH
mdiefenbach@batavianews.com
MT. MORRIS — For the
second year in a row, Emily
Mike returns at Mt. Morris’
high school spelling cham-
pion.
Mt. Morris holds the spell-
ing bee in English class-
rooms, and the winners of
the seventh and eighth grade
classrooms compete in front
of the whole school. Jesse
Hamilton, junior-senior high
school principal, said Mike
had to beat 60 other students
to cling to her title.
“I’m very proud of Emily.
Going back-to-back years
as champion is very hard to
do,” he said. “She’s a very
smart kid that works hard,
and really tried to prepare
for this.”
To prepare, Mike, a
13-year-old 8th grader, said
she wrote down all the words
on a separate sheet of paper
and the pronunciations even
if she already knew them,
studying it.
“(Winning the spelling bee
a second time) is a bit more
stressful, but it’s really good
because I know what’s hap-
pening, so that’s a plus,” she
said. “I actually know what to
do to succeed this time.”
She did admit during
the spelling bee, her heart
stopped for a moment be-
cause she was given the word
“extricate” but in the sen-
tence the announcer used
“extricates.” When she de-
cided to spell the first word
without the ‘s’ at the end, the
judge initially thought Mike
See MIKE T10

DAILY NEWS FILE PHOTO

Emily Mike, second from right, is the Mount Morris spelling bee champion for the second year in a row.
She is pictured with Jamie Hale, last year’s other Mount Morris spelling bee champion, Elementary
School principal Rachael Greenel and Junior-Senior High School Principal Jesse Hamilton.

Bee Spelling
Bee
From T4
Ask me about the 100% Money Back Guarantee!
gan Sykes, returning champion
at Livonia Middle School; Holly CAROL DIFRANCISCO
Lin, Mount Morris Elementary Licensed Real Estate Salesperson
570 East Main Street • Batavia, NY 14020
School; Emily Mike, returning
school champion at Mount Cell: 585.297.0809
Morris Middle/Senior High Ofice: 585.409.2112 • Fax: 585.343.8502
caroldifrancisco@howardhanna.com
School; Veronica Bochicchio, HowardHanna.com
St. Joseph Elementary School,
whose sister, Madalyn, repre- Good Luck
sented the school last year; and
Amaya Martin, Warsaw Middle/
Senior High School.
Bourbon & Burger Co. Ava!
Clark is the returning regional
Congrats to Elba Lancers are
bee champion. He earned a trip
to Washington, D.C. last year Spelling Bee Participants cheering you on!!
at age 13 by spelling the word
“rouge” correctly.
“From here, our champi-
on moves on to the National 9 Jackson St., Batavia
Spelling Bee near Washington (585) 219-4242
D.C., (May 27-30 at the Gay-
lord National Resort and Con- Mon.-Sat. 11am-2am,
vention Center in National Closed Sundays
See BEE T11
 Spelling Bee March 2019 • 9

Clark there was no one to sponsor

From T4
from the word and trying to
spell it with the pronuncia-
tions. Noah also said there
are language rules and defi-
nitions of words that spellers
need to know, just in case the
word has been anglicized so
much it doesn’t sound like
original word anymore.
Noah has been com-
peting in the WNY region-
al bee since he was in the
DAILY NEWS FILE PHOTO fifth grade, though he had
2018 Western New York Regional Spelling Bee champion Noah to skip sixth grade because
Clark, of Bergen, spells the winning word during last year’s
regional bee at Genesee Community College. He will compete
again this year at Batavia High School on March 23.
it. He competed again last
year when The Daily News
co-sponsored the event and
got it running again. In 7th
grade then, he made it to the
bee after winning his home-
school competition with the
word “magnanimous.” Of all
the spelling bees, his favorite
part is winning.
“I’ll have to see what God
has in store for me because
his will is not my will,” No- DAILY NEWS FILE PHOTO
ah said when asked when he Noah Clark poses with Daily
wanted to be when he gets News Publisher Michael
older. “So I would like to do Messerly after winning the
what he would desire for me regional spelling bee last year
to do.” with the word “rogue.”

Best of Luck Spelling Bee Participants!

And Welcome V-I-S-I-T-O-R-S!
8276 Park Rd., Batavia NY 14020 • (585) 343-7440 • www.GeneseeNY.com • www.VisitGeneseeNY.com

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10 • March 2019
PHOTO FLASHBACK: A FEW OF LAST YEAR’S CONTESTANTS RETURN THIS YEAR
Emily Mike of Mount Morris shows confidence as she spells one of her words at
the Western New York Regional Spelling Bee on March 24, 2018 at Genesee
Community College. She’ll be at this year’s spelling bee for the
Mike
From T8
spelled it wrong, only to real-
ize she did spell it correctly.
Winning with the word
“lustrous,” Mike suggested
if other students want to per-
form better in the spelling
bee to study a lot — even if
you know it. If a word is giv-
ing them trouble, ask for a
definition or an alternative
pronunciation.
To Mike, the spelling
bee is something fun to do,
and she added, “I’m one of
those people who just likes
to read and stuff; so I just
thought it would be fun, and
it was.” She added the best
part about participating in
the spelling bee is making
friends.
“I’m really bummed this is
my last year doing it because
I only had two years to do it,
but I’m glad other kids can
have their entire years to ex-
perience it,” Mike said. “I re-
ally do wish it happened ear-
lier because it’s just a good
opportunity.”
Her favorite subject is En-
glish and is thinking about
being a college professor or
actor when she is older.
Spelling Bee
DAILY NEWS FILE PHOTO
DAILY NEWS FILE PHOTO
Reagan Sykes of Livonia spells a word during the 2018 regional bee on March 24.
She will return to the regional bee for the third time in a row this year.
Spelling
Bee
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wishes the best of luck to our
Spelling Bee Champions,
Good Luck, Riley!
585-591-3827
Holly Lin and Emily Mike 10573 Main St., Alexander
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 Spelling Bee March 2019 • 11

2018
From T7
lasting 25 other contestants,
including four from Livingston
County.
Noah correctly spelled “strat-
egy” to close the 11th round
and then - as the last remaining
contestant - had to return for
one more round and correctly
spelled “rouge” - a red powder
or cream used as a cosmetic for
coloring the cheeks or lips - to
win the bee.
ing “huckster” and “spoor,” re-
spectively.
“It was a great experience,”
Reagan said. “I loved that they
tried to make it as fun as possible
for people in the competition.”
“I was nervous. I studied a
lot. I thought it would be harder
than the school bee,” said Rea-
gan, who would still be eligible
to compete next year,
Jamie said she “would totally
do it again, it was so much fun.”
The word that tripped her up
was “spoor.”
“It was very intense. I was so
nervous, I felt like I was going to
Bee
From T8
bor, Md.),” Messerly said. “Last
year’s champion, Noah Clark
from a home school in Bergen,
is back to defend his title, so the
competition is stiff. I’m confi-
dent I’ll be impressed again by
our new and returning school
champions. These are a great
set of kids who do things the
right way in school and this is
the best known academic com-
petition for young people. We’re
changed from last year, Messer- “There is nothing wrong with
ly said.
“One change this year is we’ll
the Steiner Theater at GCC, it’s a
great venue, but we were pretty
have a judge up front, near the snug for space last year and the
stage, to make sure the cham- Batavia High School Auditori-
pions are hearing the word um gives us more room for our
correctly,” he said. “We moved judges to be closer to the spell-
to BHS for the size of audience ing champions.”
the bee attracts,” Messerly said.
Spelling
Bee
Real Estate Services
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With the victory, Noah has puke,” said Jaime. just thrilled to be a part of it.”

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earned a spot at the Scripps Na- Jamie said she did like com- Messerly said more local 570 East Main Street • Batavia, NY 14020
EY B CK GU
A

tional Spelling Bee, which takes
May 31 and June 1 near Wash-
ington, D.C. Noah and a parent
will receive hotel accommo-
dations, travel and a per diem
courtesy of Batavia Newspapers
Corporation.
Kalena Abrahim, an eighth-
grade student at Heim Middle
School, Amherst, was runner
up.
Noah and Kalena found
themselves as the final two
spellers after eight rounds.
They traded correct answers for
ing on stage and found the ex-
perience very different than her
school bee. “There were a lot
more people in the audience,
and a lot more competitors,”
she said.
Sydney left late in the first
round after misspelling “contra-
band.”
NMLS#29600
schools are participating than Cell: 585.314.7982
last year, with about the same Office: 585.409.2121 • Fax: 585.343.8502
number of schools from Buffalo nancycrocker@howardhanna.com
HowardHanna.com
and Rochester.
“We have been routinely
asked to expand the age of eligi-
ble spellers, but we want to have
a manageable number of cham-
pions, too,” he said.
The spelling bee rules haven’t
Spelling Good luck to all of our local students!!
Bee

two rounds before Kalena mis- R oss P. B owm an

spelled “quesadilla.” Mortgage Consultant MLO#407608
Emily Mike, a seventh-grade Cell 716.989.7794
Office 716.654.5626
student at Mount Morris Cen- Fax 716.651.5640
tral School, was the top speller Toll Free 888.500.9733
from Livingston County and ross.bowman@1stprioritymortgage.com
was among the top 10 finishers https://rossbowman.1stprioritymortgage.com
6000 Sheridan Drive Williamsville, NY 14221
in the bee.
Licensed Mortgage Banker
Emily made it through five NYS Dept. Financial Services

rounds, exiting on the word

“geoponics,” a reference to an to our very own
art or science of cultivating the
earth.
“Everyone was a good sport.
Everyone was very supportive,”
said Emily, wiping away some
tears after the competition.
Emily said she had been
Veronica
studying to prepare for the
competition and planned to try
again next year.
Bochicchio
The bee featured spell-
ing champions in grades six
through eight from school dis-
tricts or home schools in Gen-
esee, Livingston, Orleans, Wy-
oming, Niagara, Erie, Monroe, “Blink of An Eye Photography
Chautauqua, Cattaraugus and by Barbara”
Allegany counties.
Also representing Livingston You will bee
County were Reagan Sykes of
Livonia, Jamie Hale of Mount terrific!
Morris and Sydney Murray of
Avon. 2 Summit Street, Batavia NY
Reagan and Jamie exited in (585) 343-6154 • www.sjsbatavia.org
the second round after misspell-
12 • March 2019 Spelling Bee