WITF Central PA Spelling Bee: A 69-Year Tradition Inspiring Students Across the Region
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Asia Tabb
Aired; June 9th, 2025.
Listen to the podcast to hear the full conversation.
For nearly seven decades, the Central Pennsylvania Spelling Bee has brought together young students from across the region to compete in one of the area’s most cherished academic traditions. Since about 15 to 17 years ago, public media organization WITF has proudly taken on the role of organizing the bee, continuing the legacy that was originally sponsored by PennLive and the Patriot-News.
Patrick J. Dennehy, WITF’s Central PA Spelling Bee Coordinator, shared insights about the history and scope of the event:
“Overall, the Central PA Spelling Bee has been around 69 years. Before it was a WITF event, it was sponsored by PennLive and the Patriot News.”
Dennehy has been with WITF for two years as the coordinator but brings decades of experience, having spent 25 years as a school coordinator in the Central Dauphin School District. His role encompasses managing logistics, communicating with schools, and overseeing the registration process for the 65 to 70 participating elementary and middle schools from 11 counties in Central Pennsylvania.
“We start actually during the summer contacting schools, seeing who’d be interested in participating. I communicate with principals and building coordinators to make sure they’re registered with Scripps, the national organization, and then with us,” Dennehy explained.
Schools send their champions to compete in a preliminary written test — now conducted online — and the top 35 spellers advance to the championship round. The winner moves on to the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.
Dennehy believes that seeing a local kid excel inspires others in the region to pursue academic competitions.
“They see that somebody from the same area, who goes to the same stores and hangs out in the same places — a normal Central PA kid — can do this. He’s just one of us,” Dennehy said. “Anybody can do this. You don’t have to be from a big city.”
He’s witnessed firsthand how having a champion from a particular school increases participation in subsequent years, helping foster a culture of academic excellence.
The spelling bee has evolved alongside technology. The pandemic accelerated the move to online components, such as the written preliminary round, which used to be a massive in-person event.
“We used to fill the whole atrium with 200-plus students taking a 100-word written test, which was very time-consuming to grade by hand,” Dennehy shared. “Now the written test is done online, and we’ve kept many of those digital tools going forward.”
The words themselves have grown more challenging over time, reflecting the increasing competitiveness of the bee.
