Selectmen Enrico Villamaino won the town's first adult spelling bee.
East Longmeadow officials participate in a spelling bee at East Longmeadow High School.EAST LONGMEADOW – Students in the East Longmeadow High School television production class and media club will enjoy a trip to New York City and a tour of NBC studios thanks in part to the willingness of town officials to spell or misspell words during the town’s first ever adult spelling bee.
“The idea was to raise some money in a fun way for the students to go on the trip,” said East Longmeadow Community Access Television special projects manager Courtney Llewellyn.
The event, held at East Longmeadow High School recently, included participation from School Superintendent Gordon Smith, Police Chief Douglas Mellis, selectmen Paul Federici and Enrico J. Villamaino, Planning Board member Michael Carabetta, Town Moderator James Sheils, several teachers and other town officials.
The winner after 14 rounds with the word maladroit was Villamaino. Maladroit is an adjective meaning, lacking in adroitness, unskillful, awkward, bungling or tactless, according to dictionary.com.
“It was a lot of fun and I’m glad I could help the kids with their trip,” he said.
After several rounds with some easy words like softball, sheriff and professor it began getting more difficult including words like milquetoast and pterodactyl.
“I was doing pretty good, but then they hit me with onomatopoeia and I just couldn’t remember it,” said Steve Extine, a high school science teacher who won second place.
Villamaino said he was worried early on when his first word was astrophysicist.
“I wasn’t sure I would make it all the way,” he said.
Llewellyn said for its first year the event pretty was successful. She hopes to make it an annual event to raise money for future scholarships or trips.
East Longmeadow businesses Tao’s Restaurant, Lux Boutique and Fazio’s Pizzeria donated gift certificates for the winners.