Can you spell “silhouetted”? How about “pirouetted”?
Well, neither could most of these people.
Thirteen local celebrities stepped up the mic and gave it their best shots — or at least their best jokes — at the Fourth Annual Psi Iota Xi Komedy Spelling Bea Saturday night.
The event raises money for scholarships and for local art, music, speech and hearing needs in Brown County schools. The winner of the “bea,” Kris Kritzer, once received one of those scholarships.
Kritzer is a Hendricks County deputy prosecutor and Brown County High School graduate who’s planning to run for Brown Circuit Court judge this year. His fifth and final word was “physicist.”
The runner-up was Mary Wertz, a Bartholomew County deputy prosecutor and former Brown County deputy prosecutor who’s also running for judge. She got knocked out on “pirouetted.”
After the eighth-grade level, Kritzer and Wertz were the only spellers left standing. The other words that gave the colorful cast of contestants trouble were “timidly,” “arduous,” “legitimately,” “javelin,” “habanero,” “hypotenuse,” “crustaceous” and “nautilus.”
Including the chili cookoff which took place before the “bea,” the event raised $3,310.25 for the sorority’s philanthropic projects.
Lisa McCloud earned the Golden Ladle Award for her “Memaw’s Mean Chili,” which brought in $65.11 in people’s choice donations.
