The sweet spell of success

Julia Grimaldo got a pep talk on the telephone from her two older sisters in California Saturday before the 34th Annual Inland Northwest Regional Spelling Bee in Lewiston.

“They told me to stay calm. You know the words,” said Julia, an eighth-grader at Orofino Junior-Senior High School.

They were right. Julia spelled “benevolent” correctly to take her third straight championship in the 13th round of the contest. She smiled briefly, walked away from the microphone and sat down.

“I kind of had to think about it a little,” Julia said afterwards.

Her top finish secures a spot in the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., this spring. Trip expenses for her and her dad will be paid for as part of her prize.

It also cements a family tradition that began with her sisters more than a decade ago and is ending this year. In 2020, Julia will be in high school and too old to compete.

Julia’s older sister, Anna Grimaldo, won in 2007, when she was 9 years old. That was followed by two more consecutive victories. One of those was 2009, when their other sister, Frances Grimaldo, placed second before she won in 2011.

The sisters are now adults. Anna has graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and Frances is a senior at the same school.

They inspired Julia to spell. Julia remembers them practicing and being supported by their parents, Maria and Ephraim Grimaldo.

Like her sisters, she takes preparing for the bee seriously. The event falls between the two sports she plays, volleyball and golf.

Starting after Christmas, she spent as as many as five hours a day studying, five days a week.

“I know I didn’t win by luck. I won by hard work,” she said.

She spelled a number of words not ordinarily used in every day speech, such as “catkin,” (a flowering spike of trees) and “dearth,” (the scarcity of something). Plus she handled a curve ball with the word “palette.” By requesting the definition, she figured out she was supposed to spell the noun for the board painters use to hold paints, and not pallet, a portable platform for storage.

Although she needed the information in that round to avoid guessing, she admits she sometimes asks about word origins, or for a word in a sentence, to buy time.

Her tactics frustrated her opponents. They included Aiden Cain, a fifth-grader at Juliaetta Elementary, who placed second, and Kiernan Thurston, a sixth-grader at Moscow Middle, who placed third.

Kiernan made the audience and his fellow competitors laugh when he raised both arms to celebrate completing the word “stoic” right. Later, he gave Julia a high-five when they were sitting on a platform for the students who placed.

Debra Lybyer, the event’s pronouncer, congratulated all of the almost 30 participants.

“I hope you all feel very proud of yourselves. This was a great day,” said Lybyer, senior director of academic advising at LCSC.

The event was sponsored by St. Joseph Regional Medical Center, Lewis-Clark State College and the Lewiston Tribune.

Williams may be contacted at ewilliam@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2261.