You were the “lagniappe” of an incredible event! 
(Not sure if we’re using that correctly.) 

Lagniappe ((/ˈlænjæp/ LAN-yap) noun: an extra or unexpected gift) 

It was an amazing night, thanks to you! We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. 

Congratulations to winning team Burness (winning word, “lagniappe”)! And to all of the talented spelling teams! 

We were thrilled to honor this year’s People, Power, and Potential winners: Robert Huffman, volunteer instructor at Covenant Life Church ESOL, and Laura Prado, Program Supervisor for ESOL at Catholic Charities. Their speeches that night inspired at least two audience members to become English language instructors! 

And we were honored to receive the County Council Proclamation celebrating our ten years of Spelling Bee-ing from Council Vice President Will Jawando, Councilmember Laurie-Anne Sayles, and Councilmember Evan Glass. 

Learning English is the key to belonging. Thank you for supporting essential, life-changing learning opportunities for the people of our community – and helping to grow a stronger Montgomery County for us all. 

Thank you for being a part of this year’s Spelling Bee. 

See you next year!