The Great Shehan Spelling Bee

Cohen and Wolf was one of 17 corporate teams that participated in the 14th Annual Great Shehan Spelling Bee event held on Tuesday, February 26 at the Bridgeport Holiday Inn. The annual Spelling Bee is a fundraiser for the Center's After School and Saturday Program, which serves Bridgeport youth and families.

The contest, as in previous years, was highly competitive from the first word. Five teams were eliminated in the first round for incorrectly spelling words like "fluorescent, supersede, terpsichore and philippic." Cohen and Wolf correctly spelled "legionnaire" to move on to round two.

Cohen and Wolf's cheerleading squad kept morale high, providing one of the highlights of the evening when two of its members performed cartwheels at the end of their second cheer. Despite confidently completing the first few rounds, the team had to use its mulligan ("do over") to hold them in the competition. The correct spelling of "flocculate" moved Cohen and Wolf into the finals with just 3 other teams: last year's champions, Dr. Cynthia Bartolone, Tauck World Discovery Team 2 and IKON.

It took another seven nerve-racking rounds before a winner was declared. During the finals, all four teams incorrectly spelled words like "verruca, catarrhine and soricine." In the end however, it was Dr. Bartolone's team that earned the coveted prize by correctly spelling "exsiccate". Second place was Tauck Team 2 for correctly spelling "contumacious". Cohen and Wolf finished third in the contest.

Spelling for Cohen and Wolf were Attorneys Stewart Edelstein, Courtney George and Richard Slavin. The Cheerleading squad was comprised of Jason Buchsbaum, Deborah Erickson, Ari Hoffman, Lesse Langer, Carrie Larson, Pamela Lutin and Donna Santana.