3 teachers hold spelling bee for adults in Chicago’s Wicker Park
A crowd turned out in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood Wednesday evening for an adult spelling bee.
Three teachers organized the first-ever Wicker Park Spelling Bee in the Chicago Park District park of Wicker Park at Damen Avenue and Schiller Street.
Fourth-grade teacher Gracie Hepworth said she was inspired to organize the event while trading TikToks with her friend, teacher Jenna Garcia, and they came across someone who threw a spelling bee party.
So they decided, why not hold a spelling bee for adults?
“We thought it would be a really fun community event. We’re the three teachers on summer break,” said Hepworth. “So Jenna and I were talking about it, and then I roped in my fiancé, Matt, who’s also a teacher — and one thing led to another.”
The trio of teachers began putting up simple black-and-white posters around the Wicker Park neighborhood. They also posted a series of TikTok videos, and were shocked that one of them went viral and racked up more than 350,000 views.
“Once the TikTok happened, we had no idea what it was going to look like. Our initial instinct was that it would be like maybe a few of our friends, and then maybe a few strangers the posters — probably about 20 people,” Hepworth said. “But once we saw how many views it was getting, we had no idea. We all got a little bit nervous. But we were committed to carrying it out, so here we are.”
Indeed, there were a lot more than 20 people at the spelling bee. They sat on lawn chairs and blankets in the grass, making Wicker Park look more like Ravinia.
The teachers said they created the spelling bee because they wanted to spread positivity in their community in an age where social media is dominant in people’s lives.
They also wanted to get people off their phones to do something in person.
