Christian Academy competes in international spelling bee

The Community Christian Academy sent 16 kids to Lake Mead Christian Academy for the annual Association for Christian schools International Spelling Bee.

According to Principal of CCA Renee Bell, each grade at the school had a grade level contest and the winners traveled to Las Vegas last week to compete at Lake Mead Christian Academy. Once at Lake Mead, all the contestants were told they were champions in their own right.

“We eliminated the spellers one at a time, so we are sending our top spellers. The picture has 1st through 3rd, but only 1st and 2nd places got to go to Vegas. The principal said the contest attracts anywhere from 30-50 kids from all other Christian schools in Las Vegas and Boulder City.

She said her kids were ready.

“They will get nervous, but the important thing is they have a good time. I get nervous for them too,” she said. “Once they win our (CCA) spelling bee then we give them a list of words to study, so they can be well prepared.”

Bell was very proud of her kids and said all her kids are reading by Christmas when they are enrolled in the kindergarten class. She said the school also competes in speech and science contests during the year.

Stephen Keefe, proud father of second grade contestant Michael Keefe, said his son had been studying for this since November and finished in fifth place.

“At the spelling bee there were 24 second graders competing and Michael went 17 rounds. He was fine at first, but then he started counting how many were left. That is when he started to get nervous. He may have been nervous, but the parents were very stressed too. You could see the parents all sigh after their own kid got a word right, me included,” he said.