• Contact Us
  • Events calendar
Entering Swellesley
Pinnacle, Wellesley

The Swellesley Report

More than you really want to know about Wellesley, Mass.

  • Advertise
  • Contribute
  • Eat
  • Wellesley Square
  • School
  • Top 10 things to do
  • Embracing diversity
  • Charities/Community
  • Arts
  • Camp
  • Kids
  • Environment/Sustainability
  • Events
  • About us
  • Subscribe
  • Natick Report
  • COVID-19
  • Letters to the Editor
  • 2021 Town Election
  • Bulletin Board
Needham Bank, Wellesley
Boston Sports Institute, Wellesley

Weston’s Health Advances swoops in for Wellesley Spelling Bee win

November 5, 2015 by Deborah Brown Leave a Comment

Winning team, Health Advances, revels in their glory. Left to right: Josh Meidenbauer, Melissa Lowder, Laura Eisenmann
Winning team, Health Advances, revels in its glory. Left to right: Josh Meidenbauer, Melissa Lowder, Laura Eisenmann

The 26th Wellesley Education Foundation welcomed a record 58 teams to its 26th annual Spelling Bee, which raised over $54,000 to fund enrichment programs for the Wellesley Public Schools. This year’s winners, Health Advances, a company that apparently operates at the intersection of science, technology, and business strategy, came the heck out of nowhere (well, Weston) to win the big trophy and year-long bragging rights.

Their winning word: threnody. Definition: a song, hymn, or poem of mourning composed as a memorial to a dead person. Also, as you probably already know, Threnody is a fictional character created by Marvel Comics for the X-Men series. She’s rather a dark character, in constant mental agony and often delusional. Sort of like all the teams who thought that this might be their year. Too harsh? Nah. I can talk like this. I, too, have been an also-spelled.

Master of Ceremonies and long-time WCVB-TV sportscaster Mike Dowling was on hand, as always, to call out the words as only he can, and WHS Principal Jamie Chisum zealously worked the gong to warn teams that only five seconds remained to spell. Really, he has too much fun with that gong. But let’s not take it away from him. I suspect it’s a major reason he continues on with us.

Scene: a room in the castle (which looks suspiciously like the Sprague School gym)

Hamlet: Words, words, words.

Good point, Hamlet, onto the words. Here are a few that the teams faced: cinephile, siccative, dissymmetry, osteocyte, illimitable, annulet (not to be confused with amulet), kepi, mesocracy, selenic, garrulity, and many more. So, so many more.

Faced with the certainty of so, so many more words, teams, once they commit to this insanity, are at least given a good idea of what they might face on the big night. To get this good idea, each team of three competitors pays a $500 fee to compete. For that price, they are supplied with the most expensive word study list ever, which they generally parcel out by thirds among themselves. From there, they make an heroic attempt to memorize each and every word. Some spellers make endless flashcards. Some press their kids into quizzing service. Others wing it and glance at the words when they have a spare minute.

The toughest of the tough, winnowed down over seven rounds, then moved on to the final round. Here are the finalists and the word that got them there:

The Law Offices of David Himmelberger (cinephile)
Health Advances (siccative)
WHS Senior Class Officers (osteocyte)
WHS Girls’ Volleyball (illimitable)
Schofield PTO — Skofield Spellarz (annulet)
Wellesley United Soccer Club (kepi)
Wellesley College (selenic)

(The final round also included Team WMS, which won a second chance raffle to continue in the competition.)

If you think those words are tough, here’s the list of Championship Round words:

Archetype
Lacteal
Stalag
Polyonymous
And the winning word, spelled by Health Advances, Threnody

Tonight, victory belonged to Health Advances team members Laura Eisenmann, Melissa Lowder, and Josh Meidenbauer. Tomorrow morning, they get to strut into work, hoisting their trophy high in a blaze of Spelling Bee glory. Somebody at that company had better take them to lunch at Dumpling Daughter. Hard work should count for at least that much.

Congratulations to the winning team and also, as always, to all the hardworking volunteers, especially co-chairs Stacy Braatz and Judy Zimmerman,  who made the event run smoothly. You guys know how to put on a fun event, how to move it along at a brisk pace, and how to make some serious money for Wellesley public schools while you’re at it.

print

Share

Filed Under: Fundraising

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Linden Square, Wellesley
Wellesley Youth Lacrosse

Tip us off…

Please send tips, photos, ideas to [email protected]
Wellesley Square ad
Wellesley, Jesamondo
Admit Fit, Wellesley
Sexton test prep
Feldman Law
Fay School, Southborough
Wellesley Theatre Project
image of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
Never miss a post with our free daily Swellesley Report email
Name: 
Your email address:*
Please wait...
Please enter all required fields Click to hide
Correct invalid entries Click to hide

You can subscribe for free, though we appreciate any contribution that supports our independent journalism.

Click here to read our Natick Report

Natick Report

Events Calendar

« March 2021 » loading...
S M T W T F S
28
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
1
2
3
Sun 07

World of Wellesley community book read

March 7 @ 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Wed 10

Open House at Boston Outdoor Preschool Network

March 10 @ 10:00 am - 11:00 am
Wed 10

Super Frogs! Early Spring Wildlife of Vernal Pools: Part 1

March 10 @ 4:00 pm - 4:30 pm
Wed 17

Wellesley Police Department & Red Cross blood drive

March 17 @ 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
Tue 23

Community Conversations: How Citizens Are Rebuilding the Public Square

March 23 @ 7:00 pm - 8:15 pm

Most Read Posts

  • Wellesley summer camp listings 2021 — find the experience of a lifetime
  • World of Wellesley community book read, Mar. 7th
  • Newton-Wellesley Orthopedic Walk-In—no appointment needed
  • Wellesley man dies while mountain biking in Ipswich
  • Wellesley Business Buzz: Wellesley Tavern to open; More small business grants; virtual networking coffee

Pages

  • Guidelines for Letters to the Editor
  • How to submit your flyer for the Community Bulletin Board page
  • Wellesley Community Bulletin Board
  • Wellesley coronavirus (COVID-19) updates
  • Wellesley’s 7 official scenic roads
  • Wellesley, Mass., fishing spots
  • Wellesley Choral Society
  • Wellesley College Notable Alumnae
  • Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass.
  • Wellesley outdoor art gallery
  • Wellesley restaurants offering take-out and delivery
  • Wellesley, Massachusetts restaurant — Amarin of Thailand

Recent Comments

  • Bob Brown on Let the Morses Pond chatter begin!
  • Shelley on Let the Morses Pond chatter begin!
  • B Wood on Branches to take over when Wellesley Free Library’s main building undergoes renovation
  • Peter Watson on Branches to take over when Wellesley Free Library’s main building undergoes renovation
  • Gail Marshall on Wellesley’s scenic roads

Links we like

  • Great Runs
  • Jack Sanford: Wellesley's Major League Baseball Star
  • Taquitos.net
  • Tech-Tamer
  • The Wellesley Wine Press
  • Universal Hub
  • Wellesley Sports Discussion Facebook Group

Categories

  • 2021 Town Election (19)
  • Animals (381)
  • Antiques (48)
  • Art (540)
  • Beyond Wellesley (28)
  • Books (344)
  • Business (1,371)
  • Camp (1)
  • Careers/jobs (44)
  • Churches (72)
  • Clubs (209)
  • Construction (280)
  • Dump (113)
  • Education (2,897)
    • Babson College (240)
    • Bates Elementary School (14)
    • Dana Hall School (29)
    • Fiske Elementary School (6)
    • Hardy Elementary School (33)
    • Hunnewell Elementary School (34)
    • MassBay (48)
    • Schofield Elementary School (20)
    • Sprague Elementary School (19)
    • St. John School (1)
    • Tenacre Country Day School (9)
    • Upham Elementary School (30)
    • Wellesley College (598)
    • Wellesley High School (891)
    • Wellesley Middle School (195)
  • Embracing diversity (44)
  • Entertainment (724)
  • Environment (674)
  • Fashion (134)
  • Finance (13)
  • Fire (142)
  • Food (328)
  • Fundraising (562)
  • Gardens (137)
  • Government (411)
    • 2020 Town Election (47)
  • Health (747)
    • COVID-19 (141)
  • History (359)
  • Holidays (365)
  • Houses (120)
  • Humor (45)
  • Kids (816)
  • Law (3)
  • Letters to the Editor (13)
  • Media (63)
  • METCO (5)
  • Military (3)
  • Morses Pond (97)
  • Music (544)
  • Natick Report (28)
  • Neighbors (249)
  • Obituaries (60)
  • Outdoors (585)
  • Parenting (60)
  • Police (696)
    • Crime (351)
  • Politics (545)
  • Real estate (290)
  • Religion (127)
  • Restaurants (303)
  • Safety (142)
  • Scouts (1)
  • Senior citizens (110)
  • Shopping (123)
  • Sports (901)
  • STEM (104)
  • Technology (154)
  • Theatre (383)
  • Town Meeting (22)
  • Transportation (210)
  • Travel (11)
  • Uncategorized (1,207)
  • Volunteering (319)
  • Weather (167)
  • Wellesley Election 2019 (21)
  • Wellesley Free Library (259)
  • Wellesley's Wonderful Weekend (5)
RSS Feed Icon Subscribe to RSS Feed

© 2021 The Swellesley Report
Site by Tech-Tamer · Login