The Suffolk Education Foundation’s Grown-Up Spelling Bee is making its fourth emergence from the hive this year, and we here at the Suffolk News-Herald hope you’ll join us as a sponsor, as a spelling team or in the audience to see all the fun happen on Leap Day.

The event takes place on Feb. 29 at King’s Fork High School, and it’s a fun way to boost the Suffolk Education Foundation, which offers classroom grants, scholarships and other important support and resources to the teachers and students of Suffolk Public Schools.

The event features teams of three spellers competing to become the top team. They can purchase lifelines to help them get past difficult words and misspellings, and the last team standing is crowned the champions. There’s also a costume contest among the teams, which is almost as much fun as watching the spelling. Our team already has our costumes planned, but we’re not giving out any hints.

There is also a need for sponsors for the event. Sponsors are incredibly important parts of this event, and the top sponsorship levels include the entry of a team, free tickets and more. The Suffolk News-Herald is the returning Queen Bee Sponsor, and we’re hoping your business or group will join us. You can even sponsor a word or sponsor a letter!

We also hope more teams can join in and participate with us. It’s a fun, collegial atmosphere up on the stage, and you don’t have to be nervous, because you aren’t alone, and there’s not really much at stake anyway, because the most important part is raising money for the foundation.

We also encourage everyone to come watch. We hope we will take the trophy this year, but either way, it will definitely be a fun spectator “sport”!

Find more information in the advertisement on page 3, and at the website at www.suffolkeducationfoundation.org.