Editor, Gazette-Journal:

The success of any activity which Adult Literacy on the Middle Peninsula, Inc., hosts is due, of course, to the visible (and invisible) participants. ALMP had four great teams in the Mathews Market Days’ Spelling for Literacy fundraising event.

With great enthusiasm The Young Patrons, The Buzz, The Book Worms and The Queen Bee(s) did their very best to raise the most funds yet for Adult Literacy to carry on its programs in Gloucester, Mathews and Middlesex counties. This year’s teams lived up to the dreamed competition when The Young Patrons (three college-aged students—two from Gloucester and one from Mathews) challenged the more-seasoned teams. One of the college students found a former teacher now in the role of a competitor. Although The Young Patrons were the first team to gracefully bow out of the Spelling for Literacy Bee, they aided the cause by raising a substantial amount of money and providing good entertainment by being the ones to put their current teachings to work and successfully spelled medically related words. Cheers for RCC student nurses!

Quietly in support of the Spelling for Literacy were several local businesses that supplied rewards of their own kind. Many thanks to Anna’s Italian Pizza, Bangkok Noi, Goodfellas, Mi Casa Azteca Restaurant, Nuttall Country Store, Olivia’s in the Village, Seabreeze Restaurant, Southwind Pizza, and York River Crossing Cinema that spelled out their own words for enjoyment and reward. Thanks to ACI Inc. for posting the news of Spelling for Literacy and for all Route 17 travelers to read and consider their participation in the bee.

Adult Literacy on the Middle Peninsula, Inc., thanks the Mathews Market Days Committee for providing a great venue for the event, the team members who participated in this annual cerebral event and the many local businesses that offered support and rewards for the participants.

Rhoda-Jo Stress

Program Manager

Adult Literacy on the Middle Peninsula