LINDSEY FIALA | Online Editor

“OK, are you ready for this?” asked event host and moderator Krystia Grembocki. “Your word is…mnemonics.”

Lindenwood’s Psi Chi, the International Honor Society in Psychology chapter, hosted its first spelling bee to collect donations of school supplies for children whose parents live in a shelter in Warrenton Tuesday night. 

“[These children] often have to move schools and they don’t have a lot of stability, so they need school supplies and we took initiative to help that cause,” Grembocki said. 

Grembocki said the idea of a spelling bee sounded fun while she was brainstorming different, unique event ideas. There were a total of seven contestants, all in the running for one of three gift cards. 

The hourlong event was filled with words such as bicuspid, phenotype, potpourri, heirloom, catharsis and gregarious. Unlike most spelling bees, each contestant was allowed one wrong word before being eliminated. 

During intermission, a young girl came down from the audience to spell some of her own words as well. The room erupted with applause when she made it through her list without spelling a single word incorrectly. 

Spelling bee contestant and winner J.T. Buchheit, the chief copy editor for Lindenlink and the Legacy, said that even though he has won several spelling bees in the past, there were a few words that tripped him up, including the word cappuccino.

The words Buchheit spelled correctly on his way to the top were “mannequin,” “dysfunction,” “prepossess,” “vicarious,” “heterogeneous,” “phenotype,” “potpourri,” “calisthenics,” “conscience,” “cappuccino,” “pasteurization,” “tourniquet,” “psalmist” and “mnemonics.”  

The word Buchheit missed was “alopecia” for his single strike. 

“My competition was a lot better than I thought it would be, especially Jaime and Christine,” Buchheit said. [Christine] was spelling really fast and I thought she had a good chance.”

The event was filled with giggles, jokes and words that stumped even the best spellers. And while there wasn’t much of a crowd in Dunseth Auditorium, competition filled the room. 

“Even though we had a small turnout, I think it turned out really well,” Grembocki said.

Anyone who would like to donate to this cause should bring their new or gently used school supplies to Room 405A in Young Hall. 

“Mnemonics…M N E M O N I C S. Mnemonics,” Buchheit spelled with ease.