Editor, Gazette-Journal:

With the ending of the Gloucester-Mathews Regional Spelling Bee, Adult Literacy thanks not only the students for their participation and hard work, ALMP extends that thanks to our many spelling bee volunteers.

Over the course of the five years that ALMP has worked with the students to prepare them for the spelling bees, there has been a dedicated and consistent cadre of adults who made participation in the bee a reality. Eighteen different adults have given their time to provide students with the guidance that enabled the student-spellers to become proficient in words, derivations, languages of origin and word meanings.

The significant aspect of the 18 volunteers is that some of the adults became volunteers with ALMP in order to help only with the spelling bee. Of those 18 volunteers, 14 were involved for the last two years when they clocked a total of 356 hours in 2014 (both counties were involved) and 349 hours as Mathews students prepared for the 2015 bee...