Dougherty County fifth-grader’s spelling of ‘pervade’ brings win at Tuesday spelling bee
By Alan Mauldin
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ALBANY — Eighteen Dougherty County students displayed their spelling prowess on Tuesday, with the winner taking home the spelling bee trophy after successfully rattling off the letters for “innards” and “pervade.”
Athena Garvey, a fifth-grader at Lake Park Elementary School, will represent the school system at the regional level after edging out Alice Coachman Elementary School fifth-grader Emmanuel Fowler. The contest took about an hour and a half and stretched for some 100 rounds.
“It’s awesome,” Raphael McCoy, the father of contestant Sa’ir McCoy, said of the competition. “It was a little bit of a nail-biter. It was enlightening. It was fun.”
Mother Ebony McCoy said that her son, whose love is animation, took the spelling bee in stride.
“I just feel like everything comes natural to him,” she said. “When I was saying you’ve got to buckle up, he just ignored me and did his own thing.”
Athena said her mother helped her study for the contest.
“I’m very excited,” she said of winning. “I studied the words they gave me.”
Emmanuel’s mother, Marife Fowler, said he also worked hard ahead of the spelling bee.
“He came close and he did so well,” she said.
Albany Area Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Barbara Rivera Holmes, who served as the pronouncer during the bee, seemed to enjoy her first turn in that position.
“I love spelling bees,” said Holmes, a member of the Georgia Board of Regents who referenced her former time working as a newspaper reporter to the audience “I love words. I participated in them when I was in school and they’re so important.
“Communication, vocabulary, spelling; those are foundations for learning and succeeding in the workplace.”
Holmes predicted that the students’ spelling success will help them go on to do great things in the future.
“This was a lot of fun,” she said. “It was inspiring to be with our students and their families. I’m really proud of all of them.”
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