Spelling Champ Writes Amazing Thank You Poem to Scripps National Bee

Local kid-hero Alia Abiad wrote a poem incorporating all the words she spelled correctly during her victory at the Suburban Cook County Spelling Bee.

Those who know Alia Abiad are already well aware that she’s brilliant with words—the McClure seventh-grader qualified last month for the Scripps National Spelling Bee. But now we’ve discovered that Alia is a poet, as well. The Western Springs student wrote a poem using all the words she spelled correctly during her qualifying run in the Suburban Cook County Spelling Bee. She sent it to Scripps as a thank you for hosting her in the national competition, which takes place Memorial Day weekend. Guys, this poem is good. Really good. Read it in its entirety below and think back to what you were doing in seventh grade. By Alia Abiad we are facing off at the start of the war lights are dimming, theater doors closing phones flickering flickering …

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McClure 7th-Grader Defending Home Turf in Spelling-Bee County Finals

Western Springs' undefeated Alia Abiad has already won the school and regional bees; on Thursday night, she returns to her school for the third time to take on other champions.

Here’s how Western Springs seventh-grader Alia Abiad tackles a word in a spelling bee. “I see if I know it first,” she explained. “If I know it, I try to picture it and see if it looks right. And if I don’t know it, I see if I can get it to match the sounds of the language of origin… Slavic is very phonetic, so if it’s Slavic you don’t want a lot of extra letters, but if it’s French you want a lot of extra letters.”  Doubtless, that was a trick that helped her win the McClure Junior High School spelling bee when her second-to-last word was the very French “pompadour.” She sealed it with “cauterize”—her parents Homer and Lorraine are both doctors. For the word that ended up winning her the regional bee at McClure two Thursdays ago, “…

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McClure 7th Grader Wins Spelling Bee on Home Turf

Alia Abiad placed first in the Thursday regional competition held at McClure; she advances to the next level, also held at the school, on Feb. 21.

Quickly: your word is “prevaricate.” (Means “to act evasive.”) Don’t look at it again. Can you spell it? McClure 7th-grader Alia Abiad can, and doing so left her as the last competitor standing at Thursday’s bee competition at her home school, beating out 16 other school champions (including St. Francis Xavier’s Eleanor Tung-Hahn.) Abiad got her chance when second-place finisher Audrey Santora, a 6th-grader from North Riverside’s Komarek School, missed on “Bethesda.” The Western Springs student never missed a word for the entire bee, and she advances to the Cook County finals in two weeks. “She’s got a good a chance as anybody,” said McClure principal Dan Chick. “She’s a very, very intelligent young woman, and I know she’s been working …

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Historical Western Springs

How McClure Junior High Got Its Name

McClure Junior High School has served Western Springs since 1924. But, do you know for whom it was named ... and why?

The thousands of students who have attended McClure Junior High School … as well as parents who have attended school functions… have seen the plaque that honors E. P. McClure, a former President of the School Board, for whom the school was named.  But, few know why he was so honored. Elmer Perry McClure was born in 1867 in Assumption, Illinois, the son of a successful farmer. But, unlike most farm boys of that era, Elmer attended college, graduating from Oberlin in 1895. He soon married and moved to Chicago, where he opened a drug store in 1895. In 1904, the couple moved to Western Springs, building a home at 4306 Central. During this time, he and a business partner concluded that a new metal could be the basis for a successful business …

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