Finding an appropriate venue for the National Bee is always challenging. Over 500 students
attended, and what do you do with 500 students? The National Bee has a budget of zero dollars, and
while there may be lots of nice auditoriums in Skopje, it’s hard to find one willing to open its doors
for nothing. Only a few students are spelling at any one time, and in the meantime, what do you do
with the other 499 who are waiting around? Ack! We tried to solve the problem by having a number
of waiting rooms, staggering grade levels with the 5 th/6th graders and 7th/8th graders, having two
concurrent bees and combining them at the end, and spacing out the timing of each grade level. We
didn’t know the percentage of qualifying students who would actually come, and it’s hard to really
visualize 500-600 students.
When the day finally came, we were
swamped. Despite the fact that students
had to find their own transportation,
86% of the qualifying students came
from different villages and cities of
Macedonia. We had trouble with our
computerized registration, but got
everyone registered and the bee
actually started almost on time. But our
rooms, the biggest in the college, were
not nearly big enough. Thank heavens
for all the people who pitched in to
figure out how to line students up in
the halls and down the stairwells. The
heat was terrible but most students
Photo by Austin Fast
persevered and took part. Despite these
problems, the bee was wonderful to watch. The concentration on the faces of the kids, their joy at
spelling a difficult word correctly and disappointment of missing a word, made it all worthwhile.
Once they got into the rooms to spell, magic happened. It was an exciting adventure for many of the
kids, some of whom had never been to Skopje before. Everyone was well-behaved and the winners
were ecstatic!
We’re already planning next year’s
bee and looking for new volunteers to
help plan it. We’re starting early to try
to figure out solutions for the previous
challenges to make the next bee even
better. If you’re interested in helping,
contact Marlys and be prepared to roll
up your sleeves, work hard, and have
a great time.
Photo by Austin Fast
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