Staying Busy in Jasper County

Some people around here complain that there is nothing to do. Some of us know that’s not true. Some of us manage to stay plenty busy right here in Jasper County.

Last Saturday, Recreation Director Wes Chester spearheaded a fun day at the ball park. The fun started at 5 p.m., and continued until after the weather turned cool and the movie, “How To Train A Dragon,” came to a conclusion.

In addition to having a newly released movie to watch, there were bouncies for the children to enjoy, live music, and a great deal of interaction and fun for all ages. About 300 people took part.

On Monday, another fun event took place, right here in Jasper County. It was a little different though. It was an adult spelling bee which was a fund raiser for the speech and debate team.

The Typos, a team representing The Monticello News, including John Jensen, guest columnist, Kristina Sorenson, and myself, took first place in the competition.

It was fun. But I couldn’t understand why there were only four teams. It had been promoted in the newspaper, but the team members had not made that personal contact so maybe that’s why.

Maybe some people were intimidated. But, I think the winning word of the final round was wok. Tough word.
We missed idiosyncrasy. Other tough ones included iridescent, mnemonic, and juvenescent to name a few.

But I loved it because it was such a novel fund raiser. When my children were in school, I sometimes thought they were being trained to be salesmen because of the number of fund raisers in which they participated.

To participate in the spelling bee, teams paid $75, and could also purchase passes for $25 each. I am disappointed that more businesses did not sponsor a team. These kind of events pull the community together.

The quiz bowl team will hold a trivia night fund raiser in January. I hope the lunchroom will be filled then!