BonnerSprings.com

Now paramecium isn’t only the name of a single-celled protozoan.

It is also the word by which Edwardsville Elementary fifth-grade student Mirabella Gibson won first place in the Wyandotte County Spelling Bee on Tuesday, Feb. 2, in the Turner High School auditorium. Gibson spelled the word correctly to win the championship title – a feat that Rayna Andrew, Wyandotte County Spelling Bee coordinator, said was all a matter of a young student showing clear signs of disciplined practice and self-assurance.

“What I can tell you is she was very confident from word one and … she was just very well prepared,” Andrew said of Gibson, whose first word in the bee was “adieu.”

Gibson was up against 19 elementary students from area districts that included Piper, Kansas City, Kan., and Turner. She will now be eligible to go on to the statewide spelling bee on March 13 in Great Bend.

“And I feel she will be just as confident and just as prepared for the state bee,” Andrew said. “She’ll do very well.”

Runner-ups in the competition were Turner Middle School seventh-grader Cammy Phomsouvanh, who took second place, and Resurrection Catholic School student Pamela Gurrola, who placed third.

Check back with bonnersprings.com next week for more of this story.