More Than a Bee

The competition is a week away, and she’s practiced every day. But she said she’s still “scared to death.”

Nancy Levin, director of the , isn’t leafing through the dictionary to prepare to be a speller in the 20th annual Reaching Heights Adult Community Spelling Bee. She’s the pronouncer, which means she has to study how to say about 500 words correctly, and of course, use those words in a sentence if asked. 

“That just shows how much I love the spelling bee,” said Levin, who has been a judge in the past, but is pronouncing the words for the first time this year. “I think I have been to at least 10 of them. My children used to come and cheer for the library.”

Levin’s other responsibility is bringing the official dictionary, Webster’s Third New International, which used to be in her father’s law office, and is the library’s duty each year.

“Being a librarian, I already know some of the words,” Levin said. “It’s such a highly visible position, and I take it very seriously. I am very nervous, but I’m practicing, practicing, practicing.”

“This is a highly ompetitive thing, and people are doing it for a good cause, but I want to do a good job.”

Twenty-five teams of three members each paid $500 to participate this year, and proceeds go to , said Patrick Mullen, executive director of the organization, which raises money and organizes academic and music support programs for the public schools in the Cleveland Heights-University Heights School District.

The bee has raised $250,000 over the past 20 years, and this year Mullen expects the event will help raise $15,000-$20,000.

Teams are comprised of people from law firms, PTA groups, the CH-UH Board of Education, the Cleveland Orchestra and local universities such as Case Western Reserve and John Carroll, Mullen said.

And Nancy Dietrich, who served on the Cleveland Heights City Council, will be there, the only person who has never missed a bee, he said. 

There is a panel of three judges, and Steve Presser, , will MC the event as he has for the past 15 years. He said he has the easy job.

“The next more difficult job is the judges, because they have to make sure the spelling is correct,” Presser said. “The most difficult of all jobs is the pronouncer, because it requires knowledge and intonation and really important things. You can make a slight pronunciation error, and the word is completely misspelled.”

Each year he puts on a tuxedo jacket designed with embroidered letters in front of the audience. His wife, Debbie Apple-Presser, made the coat of characters, which he joked helps provide some answers to contestants.

“It’s not kind of cheesy, it’s very cheesy, but it gets a hoot and a holler. It’s like the Masters jacket,” Presser said.

Admission to the bee, which is at the at 7 p.m. on Feb. 22, is free, and audience members can purchase raffle tickets for $1 each. Raffle items are grouped in eight to 10 prize packages and include sports event tickets, orchestra tickets, restaurant gift cards from , and other local businesses, and a year’s worth of oil changes and gasoline, Mullen said. 

The Heights High Drum Line will play the contestants in. 

Last year, there was a tie between the Cleveland Orchestra team and the Squire, Sanders & Dempsey team. The words were zeugma and bouquiniste.

“What has struck me is that some of these teams, it’s almost impossible to knock them out, especially the orchestra team. They have an amazing knack for spelling words,” Mullen said.

 Though the competition can be stiff and serious at times, the outfits and team names are not. In past bees, people are decked out in cowboy gear, beehive wigs, and of course, black-and-yellow costumes. 

"It’s the greatest night of the whole year," Levin said. "It’s the Oscars and the Grammys in one."