Gabe Sayer came in second place at spelling bee (Photo: Enoch Wu/Sentinel-Tribune)

A traumatic car accident Saturday morning almost kept the champion of the 2011 Wood County Spelling Bee
from attending the event, but a "trooper" of a grandmother took charge and made it all happen.

Alisha Byram, 14, of Cygnet, clinched the title as the county’s best speller on her final word,
"cafeteria." She is an eighth-grader at Elmwood Middle School.
Runner-up Gabe Sayer, 10, of Bowling Green, is a fifth-grader at Kenwood Elementary. He misheard his
final word "obstinate" as "opstinate," and spelled it accordingly.
The two will be joined at the March 15 regional championship bee by the other top four spellers, Evan
Austin, Rossford Jr. High; Alyssa Brimecombe, Crim Elementary; Faith Rowe, Luckey Elementary; and Jason
Fincher, Pemberville Elementary. The winner there goes on to the national bee in Washington, D.C. PHOTO GALLERY

"We almost didn’t make it here," stated a shaken Eve Baldwin, Alisha’s grandmother, afterwards.
Alisha and her two younger sisters, Josey, 11, and Isabella, 7, spent Friday night at their grandma’s
home in Luckey since they were riding with her to the Wood County Educational Service Center. The WCESC
sponsors the Wood County Spelling Bee, along with Blakely Care Center of Bowling Green.
Fortunately, Baldwin insisted her granddaughters leave early enough in the morning to grab breakfast
along the way. But while still in Luckey, negotiating icy roads, Baldwin’s Toyota Rav 4 was smashed by a
village snowplow which was backing up, turning the hood into an accordion and sending car debris flying.

As Baldwin saw the truck coming toward her vehicle she threw it into reverse and also pumped the horn
furiously to warn him. But her tires spun on the slick roadway, and the driver didn’t hear the horn.
All four in the car were wearing seat belts and survived the crash, shocked but uninjured. Alisha cried.

The snowplow driver found out they were safe, and Baldwin went into battle mode. Treasurer of the North
Baltimore School District, she is accustomed to handling tough situations.
She informed the driver that Alisha had to get to the spelling bee on time or she would be disqualified.
Luckey’s maintenance supervisor, Randy Bielinski, arrived in a truck and the four piled in with him, who
drove them to Baldwin’s house for a second vehicle.
Her older Dodge Caravan minivan was buried in snow three to four feet deep and covered in about two
inches of ice. While Bielinski used his truck to plow out the snow around the van, Baldwin worked
furiously to break the ice off the windshield.
"I didn’t even know if it would start," she said, recalling her worry while the two worked to
free the car. Meanwhile, her granddaughters had gotten into the vehicle and began to practice more
spelling words with Alisha.
When a law enforcement officer showed up to make the incident report, Baldwin pleaded to hold off on it
while she ran Alisha to the spelling bee, with the promise she’d return.
Baldwin was able to get the teen there on time, then scurried back to Luckey for the report. But the
officer had left, freeing Baldwin to return to Bowling Green and witness her granddaughter’s triumph.

WTOL News 11 co-anchor Brad Harvey was the word pronouncer for the first time. To put them at ease, he
bantered with the 26 children, grades five through eight, who were there as the top speller of their
individual school.
Sayer, the son of Kirsty and Aaron Sayer, lasted nine rounds, correctly spelling such words as
"alcove," "retrospective," "falsetto," and "carnivore." But in
round 10, he misheard "obstinate" and spelled it with a "p."
"If I’d heard it right I would have spelled it right," he said afterwards. An avid reader of
fiction and fantasy, Sayer guessed he was naturally a good speller, though he said he "practiced a
lot of words every day."
"I just wanted to do my best. I didn’t care if I won or not," he stated. His mother, though,
noted he had some concerns about competing on March 15 in the regional bee as that is her due date for
the family’s next baby.
Saturday was the second time for Byram to compete. Last year she went out in round two, and this year,
"I really just wanted to get in the top six."
Was it worth it, going through the accident and stressing out about getting to the bee? "Yeah,"
the champion said simply.
Jason Smith was the area coordinator for the bee, while the judges were Elaine Paulette and Jessica
Blakely. Record keepers were Karen Creps and Margaret Krueger.
The 20 additional participants were: James Wasylyshyn, Webster Elementary; Elizabeth Barnett, Bowling
Green Christian Academy upper campus; Adam Baty, Otsego Junior High; Abigale Crase, Milton Elementary;
Isaac Schulz, Eagle Point Elementary; Alejandra McCrory, Northwood Middle School; Anna Pathammavong,
Eastwood Middle School; Nathan Banky, Lake Middle School; Andrea Roddy, Powell Elementary; Kaleb Andrus,
North Baltimore Middle School; Andrew Richardson, Haskins Elementary; Abdurehman Khan, Woodland
Elementary; Shane Tobar, Grand Rapids Elementary; Micah Mckanna, Ridge Elementary; Grace Blandin, Lake
Elementary; Michael McManus, Indian Hills Elementary; Jacob Glomski, St. Aloysius Catholic School;
Michaela Flowers, St. Louis Catholic School; Joshua Lamb, Bowling Green Christian Academy, lower campus;
and Emma Cavins, Conneaut Elementary.