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.

“I’m really excited about it,” Gibson said of winning the bee, noting that during the bee she had been “really freaked out” that some of the participating students had been much older than her. “Every night I studied like after school. I studied the words my teacher gave me, and I kind of went through the dictionary.”

Gibson said the word “paramecium” had been one of the words she had studied in preparation for the bee.

Edwardsville Elementary principal Aaron Miller said he was proud of Gibson’s achievement, especially since she had worked so hard. He said Gibson told him she had been studying about two hours a night.

“I just think our school’s excited, and it’s an honor to have someone (win the Wyandotte County Spelling Bee) and I know she’s … put a lot of time into it,” Miller said.

Through her victory, Gibson 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.”

Runners-up 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.

Also participating from USD 204 were Esmeralda Hernandez, student at Bonner Springs Elementary, Anna Dutton, student at Delaware Ridge Elementary, and Brianna Shively, student at Clark Middle School.

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