Can you correctly spell “hinterland” and “manicure”?

At the district spelling bee on Jan. 17, Ellen Hunter correctly spelled those two words to become the countywide winner. Hunter is a fifth-grade student at Guyton Elementary School in Jennifer Crapse’s homeroom.

She competed in December against her fellow Guyton Elementary students to become the school’s representative. Joshua Hahn, another fifth-grade student, was the school’s alternate.

After the schoolwide spelling bee, Hunter began to study words and word origins along with her mother, Lenora Hunter. At the district spelling bee, she confidently survived several rounds of competition against not only her elementary colleagues, but also students from each of the middle schools.

During the final round of competition, she was pitted against Kiyah Adkins, a former Guyton student who is currently in seventh grade at Effingham County Middle School. Both students performed well, but Hunter emerged as the county winner.

“She competed against elementary and middle school students and won, so that’s not something that happens regularly,” said Brenda Barrow, instructional supervisor at Guyton Elementary School.