Aiden Sowers, a third grader at Lee-Jackson Elementary School, out-spelled Ailin Harpole, third grader at Bethel Elementary, in the Mathews Market Days Student Spelling Bee on Saturday.

Rhoda-Jo Stress, director of the sponsoring group Adult Literacy on the Middle Peninsula, Inc., said her organization will next sponsor the Gloucester-Mathews qualifying event for the 2015 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

In this event, schools pay an enrollment fee and students in grades 3-8 are eligible to participate. Early bird school enrollment is open now until Oct. 15 for a fee of $130, Stress said. The fee from Oct. 16-Dec. 12 is $205.

Class, grade level and school spelling competitions precede the Gloucester-Mathews regional bee, to be held Feb. 28, 2015 at the West Mathews Civic League building in Bohannon, Stress said. The national bee is held in Washington, D.C., in late spring.

Stress said ALMP will provide the volunteers to conduct study sessions and qualifying bees that start in October...