Ann Snyder loves the way words like “onomatopoeia” roll around the mouth and off the tongue.
More than that, the Dayton Public Schools gifted student coordinator loves to watch children learn about words.
Snyder will serve as the pronouncer at the 63rd Annual Regional Spelling Bee sponsored by the Dayton Daily News 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 22, at Sinclair Community College’s Ponitz Center Auditorium Building 12, 444 W. Third St. in Dayton.
“It is one way for us to showcase good kids,” Snyder said.
Former Dayton Daily News Columnist Mary McCarty will emcee the event that will see 16 spellers from Darke, Greene, Clark, Montgomery, Miami and Preble countries compete for the regional spelling bee championship title. The winner will go on to compete at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., May 25-31.
Admission is free.
The judges are retired Dayton Public School educators Carole Dean and Margaret Baird as well as Patricia Allen Day, a world history teacher at Thurgood Marshall High School.
Angela Smith, then a Holy Angel’s student, won last year’s regional bee and competed in Washington.
Now a freshman at Carroll High School, the avid reader called the spelling bee experience “wonderful.”
“It was incredible to see Washington, D.C., and to see something being film on national TV,” she said.
Smith urged this year’s contestants to study hard.
“Look at the Greek and the Latin roots,” she suggests.
Some competitors use specially designed computer programs to study.
“It was a wonderful experience,” said Angela’s mother, Mary Ann Smith. “It was an eye opener of how all encompassing this is for these kids.”
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