Congrats to Moab’s own Mia Kimmerle, who qualified for the National Spelling Bee. Mia is the daughter of Kyle and Sara Kimmerle and a sixth-grade student in Buffy Camps’ class at Helen M. Knight Elementary School. In fourth grade, Mia won third place in the District Spelling Bee, but this year she went all the way to compete with the best in the country! Mia would have traveled to Washington, D.C. this month to compete but the event has been canceled for the first time since 1945.
Mia says that to prepare herself for the competition, she copied words from the Spelling Bee vocabulary list onto a paper. She had her family and friends quiz her on those words. Mia also had strategies to stay focused when she gets nervous on the stage: she would touch a lanyard that had her number on it that she kept in her pocket.
Not just a sharp speller, Mia also enjoys horseback riding, ballet, training her dog, reading, writing books, mountain biking, skiing, kneeboarding at Lake Powell, camping, raising chickens, playing the piano, rappelling, fishing and swimming. Wow! Way to go, Mia!
