Congratulations to spelling bee winners

Six hardworking students represented Antelope Elementary in the county-wide spelling bee on March 24 in Lee Vining. Tori Park, Jacob Park and Hannah Cain made up the team while Buh Hamilton, Nicole Smith and Joey Cruz were the alternates. All six students had been practicing feverishly since the beginning of February staying after school to prepare with coach, Sandra O'Hara.

The annual county spelling bee included student contestants from all the elementary schools in Mono County. The competition was done on an individual basis with the students spelling orally before judges and a large audience. After misspelling two words apiece, each contestant would then be disqualified.

Our students did very well with Tori taking first place, her brother Jacob took third and Hannah came in at sixth place. This was a fantastic showing for our students and their involved parents and coach.

Tori Park did not misspell any words all evening. With only two students left in the competition, Tori correctly spelled "entrepreneur" after her competitor missed it, and then she went on to correctly spell "mausoleum" to win. Tori will go to the California State competition in May that will be held at Sonoma State University (she finished in the top 20 in last year's State competition). Congratulations to all the spelling bee students.

Wild Iris honors sexual assault survivors

On Wednesday, April 5 at 1:30 p.m. there will be a service honoring sexual assault survivors. The candle light service will be held at the Walker Community Center and all interested people are welcome to attend.

Wild Iris assists all victims of domestic violence and sexual assault regardless of gender, age or cultural backgrounds. It is the hope of Wild Iris that through community education victims will not only learn to cope and heal, but will also received help and information for boundary setting and making good choices. For more information on the Web, visit www.nsvrc.org or www.calcasa.org

Also, Wild Iris will be providing art classes at the local senior center on Thursday mornings from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Chris Baker will teach the class and welcomes all senior artists. For more information concerning these programs or others provided by Wild Iris, call Chris Baker locally at (530) 495-1500.

n Marylin Portman can be reached by e-mail at mportman@direcway.com