York County Spelling Bee champ Siri Brown advances to the 2022 Maine State

Siri Brown, a fifth-grade student at Wells Junior High School, received first place in the 2022 York County Spelling Bee held at Massabesic Middle School in February.. Another WJHS 5th-grade student, Kian Donovan, received third place in the county contest. Brown will now use her spelling talent representing York County in the Maine State Spelling Bee scheduled for March 25th in Portland.

An article in a WJHS March newsletter commented on the two this way: “Both Siri and Kian represented Wells extremely well and proved to be a great example of winning even when labeled an underdog.”

On January 19th, Brown became runner-up to Donovan in the annual WJHS Spelling Bee held in a modified version with only the participants and judges present in the school’s library. The other students to participate at that time were Gabe Hatfield, Molly Graffam, Damian Cyr, Nora Ferris, Gibson Jacobson, Sophia Mabry, Aaron Adams, Liam Burke, Vienna Cardinelle, and Emily Finch.