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Madison Fuentes is a busy 13-year-old. She is a rising eighth-grader at Westover Christian Academy whoparticipates in band, drama, choir, soccer and basketball, allwhile being an excellent student. For several years, Madison hasentered spelling bees through the Association of Christian SchoolsInternational. Madison"s mother, Christy Fuentes, said Madison has placedsecond and third in district competitions, and got a third-placefinish in the regional competition in Georgia. This year, Madison won the Danville Register & Bee ScrippsRegional Spelling Bee and is heading to Washington to compete inthe Scripps National Spelling Bee. Her whole family is going to cheer her on and they have lots ofpractice doing that — on Friday, Madison wore shoes decoratedwith bees and her black and yellow handbag declared "SpellingBee Freak," while her two little sisters were decked out inblack and yellow "bee" costumes. Even Christy wore ablack and yellow shirt. "We all dress up in bee stuff," Christy laughed."It"s all about the bees." Madison will compete with 278 students in fifth through eighthgrade for a $30,000 cash prize, as well as scholarships, savingsbonds and a huge trophy, she said. While this is called a national spelling bee, there are studentsfrom around the world competing — the rules allow studentsfrom American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands andDepartment of Defense Schools in Europe to compete, as well asstudents from the Bahamas, Canada, China, Ghana, Jamaica, Japan,New Zealand and South Korea. Madison said she studied a list of 1,100 words for the Register& Bee Spelling Bee, and more were added for the nationalcompetition. "It"s not just memorization," Christy said."They have to study hard, learn word roots andorigins." Madison agreed, noting that she has studied Latin, Greek, French,Hebrew, German, Sanskrit and other languages to develop a sense ofwhy words are spelled the way they are. Madison and her family will arrive in Washington on Sunday to diveinto the week-long competition that begins with orientation andlists of words on Monday and moves on to a written test Tuesday— then the competition really begins. Wednesday has two rounds of spelling, and will eliminate all butabout 40 or 50 competitors, Christy said. This level of thecompetition will be televised live on ESPN3, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The semi-finals will be held Thursday morning, and will betransmitted live on ESPN2, and the finals will be Thursday nightand will be televised on ESPN. Before heading to the awards banquet Friday night, there will be atour of Washington, Madison said — something she is lookingforward to. Madison said she wants to be a doctor when she grows up, but is notsure what kind yet — she does, however, know she wants to beinvolved in medical mission trips, like her parents. Christy is anurse and her father, Edwin Fuentes, is a doctor. Publisher: Newspaper-sponsored bee a community effort Christy Fuentes said she was thrilled when Steve Kaylor, publisherof the Register & Bee, decided to sponsor the local spellingbee, but Kaylor said he got a lot of help. Kaylor said he approached the Danville Regional Foundation forfinancial backing for the project, and was pleased they agreed. "Without them, it wouldn"t have happened," Kaylorsaid. Then, Kaylor said, came coordinating with local schools to get theproject to fruition. "It says it"s the Danville Register & Bee SpellingBee, but it really was a community effort," Kaylor said."Madison will represent a lot of other students and teacherswho worked hard to get this done." Kaylor said he feels there is plenty of support for continuing thespelling bee in the future. "We think it does a tremendous amount of good to concentrateattention on education," Kaylor said. "This teacheslanguage, roots of words, how to study and about othercultures.". I am an expert from infusion-bag.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Hypodermic Syringe , China Disposable Vaginal Speculum, Urine Drainage Bag,and more.
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