SAN RAMON, CA: Spandana Foundation organized its 3rd annual spelling competition “Spandana Spelling Bee 2014” at Windmere Ranch Middle School, San Ramon on Sunday, February 9.
“The competition was in two stages, written round and oral round. Top 30 students in written round in each category advanced to oral round and intensely competed to win category championship”, said Spandana Foundation board of director and event coordinator Chandrasekhara Azad.
The event was a great success with more than 250 students from 1st to 8th grades competing for honors in three categories of Junior, Intermediate and Senior sections. Students from all parts of Bay Area participated in this event representing over 80 schools from over 25 cities.
It was a pleasure watching such an abundance of talent and fierce competition in each category with “Oral Spelling” segment often going into multiple rounds – as many as 20 rounds in the case of Junior category! Top three students in each category were presented with trophies.
“In appreciation of so much of talent and to encourage more students, Spandana Foundation recognized top three students in each grade. This is unique in Spandana Spelling Bee competition” said Hari Moola another director.
San Ramon Mayor Bill Clarkson graced the occasion as Chief Guest. Addressing the audience, Mr Clarkson said that he was very pleased to see such high level of performance with so many students fiercely competing for honors. He said that city of San Ramon will recognize all the category level winners of “Spandana Spelling Bee 2014”.
Giri Lankipalle, Director and Founding member said “There are three goals for Spandana in organizing this competition, fundraising for Spandana, provide platform for kids to learn, compete and excel and finally making kids aware of philanthropy. Participation fee of $25 is spent back in India for supporting 1 year of high-school education for the poor and deserving students”.
Lankipalle said, in the last seven years, Spandana helped over 15000 high school kids and helped over 200 medical and engineering students in India for their higher education”. He requested parents to involve in social service and make a difference to community both here in USA and in India.
Azad thanked the volunteers for their tireless work for over two months to make this event such a grand success. “Syamala Aramandla, Rohit Tiple, Sirish Aramandla and Bheem Sen spent numerous hours for over two months to prepare for this event. We cannot thank enough for their commitment and time” he added.
Hari Moola thanked event sponsors BMC Software, JEI Learning, Brain O Magic, ATA Martial Arts, Windemere Realty, Dublin Plaza Dental, Sanjiv CPA, Avex Funding and Peacock chain of restaurants for their support.
Spandana Foundation is a non-profit organization working to improve the lives of poor and the needy in the fields of education and health. Spandana Foundation mission is “to help and aid the poor and the deprived people in the fields of Basic Living, Education and health by actively encouraging and engaging youth in service activities”.
Winners:
Junior Category: Anisha Rao – 1st Place, Aditya Popuri – 2nd Place, Rishik Gandhasri – 3rd Place.
Intermediate Category: Rutvik Gandhasri – 1st Place, Aarush Aitha – 2nd Place, Sujana Sridhar – 3rd Place
Senior Category: Shirlyn Prabahar – 1st Place, Akil Iyer – 2nd Place, Surya Auroprem – 3rd Place.
India Post News Service
