Ready for a little friendly competition and fun?

The Washington Free Public Library Foundation has recently opened team registration for their very first Spelling Bee Competition! If the memory of your whole class at school staring at you as you tried to spell “LIBRARY” out loud at your fifth grade Spelling Bee still haunts you, don’t worry-- this isn’t that kind of Spelling Bee!

The WFPL Foundation Spelling Bee is open to teams of 3-5 people ages 10 and up. Teams can be formed by families, schools, businesses, friends or civic groups (The Washington Lions Club has already committed to a team—they’re challenging the Kiwanis and Rotary groups to join in!) In the first few rounds of the competition, teams will collaborate on spelling sets of words given to them by the judges. Words will be written and submitted to the judges for scoring. Top scoring teams will be determined by performance on the written words and then each team will put forth their best speller to face off against the other top teams in more of a “traditional” spelling bee format. Registration for the Bee is $25 for adults and $10 for children. Winning teams will receive Chamber Bucks, MakeIT Place Money and trophies!

One team member can register the whole team under their email by clicking HERE in the online version of this article. The registering team member can add the names of the rest of the team by clicking on the “Add Attendee” button. Registration fees can be paid at the library by cash or check.

Refreshments will be provided by Halcyon House and a silent auction will be open for bids from event participants and spectators. Since the proceeds of the event will go toward support of the MakeIT Place, the library’s new makerspace, the silent auction will feature creative work by local artists as well as items that inspire or support the creative process (chocolate, maybe? Wine?)

You didn’t know about the WFPL Foundation? Then this is a great time to find out more! The WFPL Foundation is currently made up of a 10-member Board of Directors that meets together on a quarterly basis, though in reality, they actually spend a lot more time than that working on the Library’s behalf. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, they are dedicated to financial assistance, innovative leadership, and advocacy to enhance and support the services and programs of Washington Free Public Library.

The WFPLF has in the past and will continue to offer opportunities for the Library to provide programming and services that would not otherwise be possible. The MakeIT Place is the most recent project supported by the WFPLF. Ongoing and past project include the Library’s 1000 Books Before Kindergarten program, the Library’s noon concert series and art collection, funding for most of the Library’s digital collection including eBooks and eAudiobooks on Libby, the Kanopy streaming video service and Mango Languages language learning service. And of course, we would not have this beautiful 30,000 square foot library facility (the envy of other communities our size!) if it were not for the vision and the fundraising efforts of the WFPLF!

Donations to the WFPLF can be made in a number of ways: Checks made out to WFPLF can be mailed to or dropped off at the Library (115 W. Washington St). In addition, gifts can be made online through the foundation’s online giving platform, Givebutter (https://givebutter.com/JfwpwS )

You can also support the WFPLF by getting your Spelling Bee team together and joining us on Feb. 20! If you’re a local artist or crafter we would love to be able to include your work in the silent auction!

We appreciate the work of our Foundation Board of Directors so much! THANK YOU to Doug McBride, Ed Lins, Brooke Hanson, Al Larios-Hernandez, Patty Stutzman, Mike Moore, Tamera Alexander, Alisha Davis, Heather Marek and Sally Hart!