Spell Master wins District 135 Community Spirit Award

District 135 awarded the first Community Spirit Award at the November 11th Board of Education meeting to Dr. Bill Smith, Spell Master of the Orland Open Spelling Bee.

As an advocate for reading and language, Dr. Smith has encouraged all ages to embrace the love of words and has touched the lives of many Orland community members, including participating District 135 students and families.

His passion and dedication for the event has continued to inspire District 135 students over the past 35 years and the Spelling Bee has also been hosted at Jerling and Orland Jr. High schools. The practice of the Spelling Bee encourages students to develop skills such as speaking, listening, adapting speech to different contexts and demonstrating a command of the English language.

The Community Spirit Award acknowledges community members who have demonstrated leadership by dedicating their time, talents and efforts in the pursuit of improving the District 135 experience for the students. For more information about the Community Spirit Award or to nominate a community member, please visit the District’s web site at www.orland135.org.

This year’s Open Spelling Bee was held October 20th at the Orland Park Civic Center.

The District 135 student winners from the 8-10 age category were the following students:

High Point 5th grade, Michael Trombetta- 1st place

Centennial School 3rd grade, Adele Szaflarski- 3rd Place

High Point 5th grade, Eric Webb- 6th Place

High Point 4th grade, Cam Amado-7th Place

High Point 5th grade, Saffion Chung-8th Place

Centennial School 3rd grade, Gavin Twomey- 12th Place

High Point 4th grade, Megan Reynolds- 13th Place