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On your mark, get set, spell!
After a near brush with cancellation, the Salt Lake County Spelling Bee is back on for this spring after Overstock.com and The City Journals signed on to sponsor the event.
The regional event, scheduled for late March, will bring together the top spellers from schools in Salt Lake County. The bee's winner then will advance to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.
"Obviously as a newspaper, reading and writing is a core value that we strongly believe in," Bryan Scott, creative director of The City Journals, said Tuesday. "I'm excited for it. I think it will be a great little project."
Scott said The City Journals, formerly known as the Valley Journals, were approached by online retailer Overstock.com to help underwrite the event. The Valley Journals had sponsored the spelling bee in the past, but dropped out after the 2013 competition after struggling to find co-sponsors.
Jonathan Johnson, Overstock.com's chairman, said newspapers are a natural fit for the spelling bee and he was pleased to have The City Journals on board.
"The papers are back involved and we're excited about that," he said.
Overstock stepped in as a last-minute sponsor last year with the intent of continuing their sponsorship into 2015. But a miscommunication with Scripps National Spelling Bee organizers left the regional event without sponsorship at the beginning of the year.
Regional sponsors bear the $5,000 to $10,000 cost of hosting the event and sending a champion and family member to Washington, D.C. for the national competition.
Johnson said "a stitch was slipped" during the contracting process for this year's event, but the company is happy the spelling bee is moving forward.
"Whether we'll do it forever, I don't know," he said. "We're glad we're doing it this year."
Local school administrators have until March to hold their own spelling bees. But another deadline looms: In order to participate in the regional event, schools must enroll with the Scripps National Spelling Bee by Jan. 29, said Chris Kemper, a spokesman for the national competition.