Pamelia girl spells success

Ding! That was the dreaded sound at the Regional Spelling Bee Finals on Tuesday night at General Brown High School, Dexter. A judge knocked a gavel against a small bell each time one of the 26 students misspelled a word.

It was a sound that Kimber Fleming of Pamelia never heard.

The 12-year-old took first place at the spelling bee Tuesday after spelling "flamboyant" and "metaphor" correctly to cinch the top spot.

Kimber, who beat out her sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade competition in the General Brown auditorium Tuesday night, will head to Washington, D.C., to participate in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in June.

"I persevered really hard for this," said Kimber, a seventh-grader at General Brown, who was accompanied by her mother, Kirsten, father, Roy and two sisters.

All 27 contestants from four school districts initially won smaller spelling bees in their schools.

Some difficult words that snagged students included "salmonella," "libretto" and "chipotle."

Finally, it came down to two students: Kimber and Andrew Hou, an eighth-grader from Potsdam Central High School. They sat on the stage, a bit fidgety, with placards around their necks to help the judges identify them.

The two took turns walking up to the single microphone on stage, Kimber coolly spelling words including "cachet," "beleaguered" and "misanthropy," while Andrew matched her with "insidious," "barrio" and "howitzer," until he tripped up on "rhetoric."

Andrew received a Webster's dictionary and a year's subscription to the Encyclopedia Britannica Online, among other gifts that may facilitate his interest in the English language. Other runners-up were Joseph Ongkingco of Wiley School, Watertown, in third place; Cameron Hance, of Hermon-DeKalb Central School, fourth; Jacob Govenettio of Belleville Henderson, fifth, and Yanna Osokalo, Lyme Central School, sixth.

The Watertown Daily Times will sponsor Kimber's and her family's trip to Washington, D.C.