You may know how to spell nasturtium, but do you know the capital of West Virginia?
How much someone knows about the world and its features – and not how to spell some of those foreign names – will be challenged Saturday, March 23, when the library’s second Annual Library Fundraiser Bee turns its attention to geography.
Questions about physical geography – what’s the longest river in the world? – but not political geography – who is the president of Venezuela? – will be the subject of the adults-only event that begins at 6 p.m. in the Belt Branch Upper Story.
Up to 10 teams of four to eight adults will take questions through eight rounds. Some questions will be addressed by individuals and others will be team activities. Teams can purchase mulligans to earn and retain points if they answer a question incorrectly.
The entry fee is $10 per team member and $5 for spectators, and both teams and spectators can purchase mulligans to help teams. Because beer and wine will be sold, spectators and participants must be 21 or older.
Last year’s spelling bee was a success for both the participants and its sponsors, the Friends of the Library and the Rolling Hills Library Foundation, raising $1,200 for the Foundation’s endowment fund.
“When you do a fundraiser, you don’t want to make it feel like you’re there just for the money. You want people to have fun,” said library Director Michelle Mears, who was decked out in a bee costume at the spelling bee. “We got a lot of comments like ‘Are you going to do this next month?’ They wanted us to do a spelling bee every month!”
As part of the fundraiser, the library is selling raffle tickets for a bee-themed quilt that was pieced together by library staff members and quilted by Quilts by David. The quilt is on display at Books Revisited until the night of the bee for the public to see and purchase tickets. The winning ticket will be drawn that night.
Teams can register and pay their fees at Books Revisited. Spectator tickets also can be purchased in advance at the bookstore or at the geography bee.
If spelling is more of your thing than geography, don’t worry. Plans are for spelling to be the bee’s theme in even numbered years while geography, history and trivia rotate through the odd years.
Spell that e-x-h-i-l-a-r-a-t-i-o-n.
