Fifth Graders Represent Junior Women's Club in North Jersey Spelling Bee

Hasbrouck Heights fifth grade students Krutika Thakkar, Zachary Hauptman and Haider Syed competed in the Northern Region Spelling Bee on behalf of the Junior Women’s Club in the GFWC Northern Region of the New Jersey State Federation of Women’s Club last week in Park Ridge.

Thakkar of Euclid School placed third in the event securing herself a place in the State Spelling Bee where she will compete against fourth and fifth grade students from throughout New Jersey at the NJSFWC headquarters on the campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick on March 10.

Hauptman, Thakkar and Syed were the top three winners of the Junior Women’s Club Spelling Bee which was held last month at the high school. Hauptman took first place, Thakkar took second and Syed came in third in that local competition. The students all received a Barnes and Noble gift card which was sponsored by for winning the local competition.

The three Heights students joined 27 others from 10 towns in the Northern Region Spelling Bee last week which was hosted by the Pascack Junior Woman’s Club.  Juniors from all participating Clubs assisted with the Bee.  The event was moderated by Tammy Levinson, NJSFWC-JM Northern Assistant Director and Pascack JWC member. 

Prizes for this event were co-sponsored by the TD Bank of Park-Ridge. As third place finalist, Thakkar received a $30 bank gift card and a trophy. Gift cards ranging from $75 to $15 were given to the other winners.

Aside from Thakkar who took third place other winners who will join her in the state competition are:  First place winner, Kaitlyn Cheung, who represented the Long Valley Area Junior Women’s Club; Second place winner was Emily Walker who represented the Junior Women’s Club of Harrington Park; Coming in fourth place was Aayush Singh representing JWC Harrington Park, fifth place winner was Jennie Shih representing the JWC of River Edge and sixth place winner was Aditi Chiney of the JWC of Rutherford.