Montcalm Elementary wins Mercer County Reading Bee
May 18—ATHENS — Last year's winner of the Mercer County Reading Bee returned the competition's traveling trophy Wednesday only to turn around and accept it again when the team was named the bee's overall winner for 2023.
Fourteen teams from Mercer County's elementary schools tested their reading/language arts skills, reading comprehension, oral presentation and vocabulary at Concord University. The students spent their morning competing at the Jean and Jerry Beasley Student Center before meeting in its ballroom to learn who was taking home trophies this year.
The reading bees in Mercer County and Tazewell County, Va., were created when Executive Editor Tom Colley of the Bluefield Daily Telegraph was chairman of the Literacy Committee of the Greater Bluefield Chamber of Commerce.
The reading bee competitions encourage children to read and develop a lifetime love of reading.
Each student went to the ballroom to receive a certificate and a book for their participation, then posed for team pictures with Superintendent Edward Toman of Mercer County Schools and Jeff Disibbio, president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce of the Two Virginias.
After all the reading bee's scores were counted, the team from Montcalm Elementary School was named the Overall Winner. Montcalm was also last year's Overall Winner.
The school's team included students Wyatt Purdy, Hannah Lane, Kenneth Scaggs, Marcus Bailey and Reanna Graham. The team's coach was Tabitha Austin.
The runner-up for Overall Winner was Glenwood School. Glenwood's team included students Logan Richardson, Yaa Afreh Berkoh, Colton Caldwell, Antoneia Caruso and Jordan Whittaker. Their coach was Ruth Barton.
Athens Elementary School won first place for oral presentation and the runner-up was Straley Elementary School.
Montcalm Elementary won first place for reading/language arts skills and the runner-up was Athens Elementary School.
Spanishburg Elementary School won first place for vocabulary and the runner-up was Glenwood School.
Glenwood School won first place for reading comprehension and Straley Elementary School was the runner-up.
After a morning of competing, the students had lunch as they waited for the awards ceremony to begin. Avery Mooney of Sun Valley School said that the oral presentation, which he called acting, was the toughest challenge, but it was fun, too.
Besides reading for the Mercer County Reading Bee, many of the students like to read just for the fun of it. Jayden Cole of Sun Valley said he enjoyed the "I Survived" series, which includes the accounts of people who survived the sinking of the ocean liner Titanic and the explosion which destroyed the airship Hindenburg.
At another table, Noah Hunter of Bluefield Intermediate School said the vocabulary competition was the most challenging. His reading choices includes novels such as "Wings of Fire." His teammate Amged Alashmali he like the series "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" because it's fun and entertaining. Team member John Thompson said the reading bee's vocabulary competition was the most difficult one.
The 2023 Mercer County was co-sponsored by: Anytime Fitness; the Bluefield Daily Telegraph; Community Radiology of Virginia; Concord University; Craft Memorial Library; the family of Eugenia Hancock; First Community Bank; the Frank Smoot Charitable Trust; George M. Cruise Foundation; Mercer County Board of Education; Mrs. Dafney K. Peters; Rotary Club, Bluefield, WV; Rotary Club, Princeton, WV; Rotary Club, Bluefield, Va.; Venture Printing & Office Supply, Inc., owners David and Gerri Moore; and WVVA.
The reading bee was also sponsored by the Community Foundation of the Virginias, Inc. (Jeffrey Edward Shott Memorial Fund, the Charles A. and Marjorie M. Peters Fund and the Bluefield Daily Telegraph Literacy Fund.
This year's reading bee was organized by Title I Supervisor Rhonda Rogers.
The reading bee's organizers extended to Concord University and Dr. Kendra Boggess; the Craft Memorial Library (Eva McGuire, director) for coordinating library book purchases; Venture Printing & Office Supply, Inc. with owners David and Gerri Moore for the Reading Bee T-Shirts; the Mercer County Board of Education; and Debbie Maynard, Chamber of Commerce of the Two Virginias, Inc.
— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com
