I actually did this at a library I worked at in Illinois for a Scripps Senior Spelling Bee. It was so much fun and the woman who won was absolutely thrilled. She went to the next level and was knocked out, but she said she loved every minute of it. Apparently, she had let a boy win the spelling bee back in school because she had a crush and she had always regretted it.

For the logistics, the hardest part was getting the participants since it was seniors, and it was a smaller suburb of Chicago. I think we ended up with only 23 people. But again, everyone had so much fun and we heard so many stories that I think it was a huge success. We had a local news person as the “caller” and two judges who were local politicians (great for photo-ops for them) and the news helped promote it. A lot of people came to watch the event.

It’s been a while ago now, but please reach out with any questions. Happy to help.

Lisa

Lisa Waskin, District Director

Superior District Library

541 Library Drive

Sault Sainte Marie, MI 49783

Ph. (906) 632-9331

lwaskin@superiordistrictlibrary.org

From: Laura Bultman via Michlib-l <michlib-l@liblists.org>
Sent: Monday, September 14, 2026 4:19 PM
To: Don Priest via Michlib-l <michlib-l@liblists.org>
Subject: [Michlib-l] Scripps Spelling Bee

We had someone reach out to us from the Scripps National Spelling Bee wanting to partner with us. They indicated that they had already partnered with other libraries so we're curious how that went and what you did. 

Thanks for sharing any experiences you have had!

Laura 

Laura Bultman | Children's Lead Librarian - Programming
Pronouns: she/her
Kalamazoo Public Library | CEN
315 S. Rose St. | Kalamazoo, MI 49007
(269) 553-7887