Trenton Middle School eighth-grader Titus Kottwitz, who has qualified for the national spelling bee recently presented a Rotary Club program.
After winning the Grundy County Spelling Bee, Kottwitz went on to win the Northwest Missouri Regional Spelling Bee held in St. Joseph. As such he is eligible to participate in the national spelling bee.
The national bee will be held virtually in June with the top 12 finishers then qualifying for live competition to be held in Florida. The finals will be televised on ESPN.
Kottwitz told the Rotary Club he prepared for the spelling bee by studying a word list provided for the event and he did a lot of reading. When spelling a word, he said he tries to determine if he has ever heard the word and, if not, will ask for a definition as well as the word origin. He also asks for the word to be used in a sentence.
Titus then competed in a spelling bee round with four members of the rotary club. The youth won in the fourth round with the word valiant. E’Lisha Gass, who serves as the TMS spelling bee coordinator, pronounced the words for the club spelling bee.
Rotary club members were reminded of efforts to continue with the collection of shoes for orphaned souls this month.
On Thursday evening, the Trenton Rotary Club will be meeting at 6 o’clock at NCMC ‘s Cross Hall. There will be recognition of Paul Harris recipients. Also scheduled is a formal presentation of the club’s donation to the Rotary Foundation on behalf of the late Joe Brinser. Rotary District Governor Donald Gladhart of St. Joseph is expected to attend.
