Annual GECRC Spellapalooza a success!

The Glen Ellyn Children's Resource Center's fourth annual Spellapalooza fundraiser took place Friday, March 2, at Glenbard West High School. A record number of 16 local teams took the stage for an old-fashioned spelling bee and a crowd of 250 people showed up to support their favorite spellers.

This year's winning team was “Alphabet Soup”, members of a gourmet group including Peter Cooper, Tom Wilhelm, Mary DiCarlo and John Day. They beat the Wildcat Warriors (Hadley Jr. High teachers Brian Bonkowski, Kelly Coleman, Brett Cooper and Heidi Hann) in a sudden death spell off. Alphabet Soup won by spelling 11 correct words in two minutes compared to the Wildcat Warriors seven correct words.

Master of ceremonies Phil Norton, the Glen Ellyn Chief of Police kept things lively throughout the evening. The audience participation round gave the fans a chance to test their skills. And fans were also able to buy their favorite teams a pass to keep them in the spelling after their first error (only one per team). The judges included John Dagger, a GECRC volunteer; Mark Franz, the Glen Ellyn Village Manager; Dr. Ann Riebock, Superintendent of Glen Ellyn School District 41; and Dr. Pam Zimmerman, an associate professor at Concordia University and longtime Glen Ellyn educator. Overall, it was a fun evening for a great cause.

The real winner of this annual event is the Glen Ellyn Children's Resource Center.

More than $13,000 was raised to support the GECRC program. The mission of the Resource Center is to provide literacy and life skills to low-income households in Glen Ellyn. It provides tutoring in all academic subjects, with an emphasis on educating students for whom English is a second language. It relies on the support of donations, grants and volunteers.