BY Anaya Vance
Staff Reporter
Sacred Heart University’s Office of Greek Life hosted their annual Spelling Bee last Monday, Nov. 26, at 8 p.m. in the University Commons. Approximately 80 people attended the event and 28 members from different fraternities and sororities participated.
“I was picked to participate because I am one of the delegates from my fraternity, so I had to choose people who had to participate. So, I chose myself and another brother of mine, Dan,” said sophomore Carlos Ruiz, a brother of Beta Theta Pi fraternity.
Panhellenic VP of Philanthropy Hailey Loreth and Executive VP Emily Walker led the event and introduced the purpose of the Spelling Bee to the audience.
“This is an annual spelling bee and the proceeds fund the Circle of Sisterhood (COS), the philanthropy of the National Panhellenic Conference which raises money for women around the world to have the opportunity to receive an education,” said Loreth.
The bee started off with words such as “standoff” and “faucet.” Gradually, the difficulty of the words increased as “exuberant,” “esophagus” and “chauffeur” were read aloud.
“I definitely wanted to stay in longer since I got eliminated in the first round, but it was still a fun experience,” said Ruiz.
The first word to eliminate a participant was “cipher,” followed by “boisterous.”
“I searched for the words on different national Spelling Bee lists,” said Loreth.
One hundred fifty words were selected to use in the spelling bee but only around 40–50 words were used. “Last year we didn’t even get through that many,” said Walker.
Erica Heins, a sister of Theta Phi Alpha, won first place in the Spelling Bee, to her own surprise.
“I joined Greek Life my freshman year, so ever since then I have gone to the spelling bee every year and just watched as a spectator. So, I said my senior year I’m going to do it and I finally did it and turns out I won,” said Heins.
Sophomore Hayley Liberatore said, “I have never been to any Greek Life events before and I’m glad I came to this one. It was so much fun watching everyone in the bee enjoy themselves as much as I did in my seat.”
In an effort to support COS, $3 raffle tickets were sold at the door. Winners of the raffle were revealed later on in the event. They won an assortment of prizes including two baskets with a gift cards to the Cheesecake Factory as well as boxes of hot chocolate.
The goal for donations was to reach around $200. With the amount of guests that attended the event, they successfully achieved that goal.
“Fundraising totals range from year to year, but it’s always been within the hundreds range. This year we raised over $200 to support the Circle of Sisterhood,” said Loreth.
