Can you spell “triumphant return?”

After two years away due to Covid, the Dartmouth Education Foundation’s Spelling Bee was back in the Dartmouth High auditorium on Thursday, March 24 for the tenth time.

In total, 22 teams of adults and high school students competed in the competition, with three people on each team.

The winners were the Wannabees, a family team made up of Smita Bala, a chemistry teacher and her children Nayla and Rishi.

Nayla, who recently became the Dartmouth School Committee’s student representative, said it “felt great” to win the competition.

Smita thanked her students who she said helped quiz her in between classes to get her ready.

Smita previously won the competition in 2017 on a team with her son, Aditya Bala, and friend Heidi O'Donnell Eastman.

The Wannabees worked as a team to win the bee, beating out the second place team, the Dewey Decimators, by correctly spelling “coalescence.”

Some of the teams that didn’t make it included: Bee Witched, who got hexed by “eczema”; Paws-itively Potter, who couldn’t rise above “hierarchy; and Big Green Machine, who got trampled by “cavalry.”

The annual fundraiser is the foundation's main source of revenue, which is used to give grants to Dartmouth teachers for “things they normally wouldn’t get funding for,” according to Meredith Wilkinson, who sits on the foundation’s advisory council.

Wilkinson said that in the past they have usually raised about $17,000 from the event, though this year’s total was a little below average as of Thursday night, by which point they had raised about $13,000.

“We’re very grateful for the hosting and the ability to be here,” said Advisory Council Chair Lara Stone.