Four middle school students from St. Ignace and one from DeTour participated in the U.P. Spelling Bee Finals in Iron Mountain Wednesday, March 18, with the following results: St. Ignace: Ben Freier, grade five, third place; Molly Paquin, grade eight, third place; Margo Brown, grade six, seventh place; Jacob Sjogren, grade seven, 11th place; DeTour: Nicole Bouwma, grade seven, fifth place. To advance to this competition, the students had been named spelling champions in their classrooms, their schools, and in regional competition.

Pamela Torola, a seventh grade student from Calumet, was the winner of the final spell-off, earning a trip to the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., in May. Miss Torola also won the U.P. Finals and went to Washington in 2007 as a fifth grade speller, and several of her siblings have achieved the same accomplishment in past years.