Alden resident Grace Ochylski carefully opens her first place award in the senior spelling bee. Although this was not the award, she did receive a homemade pie for the next three months for capturing the top award. Photo by Larry See Jr,

The event, planned as fund raiser by the Friends of the Bellaire Library, featured first and second prizes and a ÒboobyÓ prize for the person who was eliminated the first. Prior to the 2 p.m. start, coordinator Helen Heitman presented a list of words for all in attendance to get the bee off to a rousing start.

"English is not an easy language to spell,Ó"Heitman said, after carefully spelling the ten words which she offered to the assemblage. "There are 44 million words in the English language and there are only 26 letters in the alphabet."

Only two men, one of whom had to be bribed with a box of homemade chocolate chip cookies, participated in the contest, and the eventual winners were two women, who went a long time with some difficult words before succumbing.

Grace Ochylski, a participant from Alden, was crowned the eventual winner of the event. Her friend, Barbara Stimpson, said that since the library there was undergoing renovations, they had nothing to do and decided to come try their hand at the Bellaire event.

The second place finisher, Lana Franchek, could not spell the word cholesterolstis, so Ochylski won the top prize, which was a homemade pie once a month for the next three months.

Since the event was held on April Fools day, event organizers got in a little fun in the program. Ochylski fussed over how well the first place parcel was wrapped and carefully unwrapped it, saying she didnÕt want to destroy the effort someone had put into filling and a graham cracker crust. After the merriment subsided, she was presented with a warm pie to take home for dinner.

Franchek received a nice dessert as well - a cake for the next two months. In keeping with the fun theme, her initial prize was a cake Ð boxed - and she was told that she would be presented a real specimen as well.

Winning the "booby prize" for being the first one eliminated was Marilyn Fisher. She and the word "baccalaureate" has some problems and did not make it to the end of the first round. For her efforts, she was presented with a book detailing how to spell the most difficult words. Heitman said the organizers did not want to approach area businesses for prizes, indicating they receive a lot of requests throughout the year, and decided to do something a little more personal for the winners.