Inland Northwest Spelling Bee buzzes into NIC on Saturday
Gabriel Aguirre, left, and Andrew Ford competed in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. in May 2025. Gabriel will return to compete in the 2026 Inland Northwest Spelling Bee this Saturday.
HAILEY HILL/Press File
The 23rd Inland Northwest Spelling Bee begins at 10 a.m. Saturday in the Schuler Performing Arts Center on the North Idaho College campus.
The public is welcome to attend.
It's the final competition to determine which student from Eastern Washington and North Idaho will compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
The winner and runner-up will receive an all-expense paid trip with a guardian to Washington, D.C., to compete in the national bee for a chance to win the $50,000 cash champion’s prize. The winner will also receive a $1,000 cash prize from the Idaho Character Foundation and a gold trophy. Second place will receive a silver trophy as well as the trip to D.C. Whoever qualifies to compete nationally will receive a 2025 United States Mint Proof Set and a year’s online subscription to both Encyclopedia Britannica and Webster’s Dictionary.
The local bee sponsor is the Idaho Character Foundation, led by Dan and Kathryn Pinkerton. The Coeur d’Alene School District organizes the event, led by Deputy Superintendent Michael Nelson. NIC has generously donated use of the venue, staff and judges.
The Idaho Character Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes excellent character throughout the community, signed an agreement with the Scripps National Spelling Bee to indefinitely sponsor the same five northern counties that the Coeur d’Alene Press and NIC sponsored for 19 years. That agreement includes ICF paying for all prizes, including the paid trips to the national bee, May 22-25.
"Participating in the local spelling bees helps encourage so many excellent character traits such as diligence, attentiveness, decisiveness, determination, humility, orderliness and thoroughness," Dan Pinkerton said in a Thursday news release. "All of these are important for success in life, as character determines success.”
Nelson anticipates approximately 160 students from Eastern Washington and North Idaho will compete in the local bee.
“We are very pleased that our fourth- to eighth-grade students from the five northern counties of Idaho and the six eastern counties of Washington will have an opportunity to compete for a spot in the national spelling bee,” Nelson said. “And, we’re very excited that this year we can send two!”
Sandpoint home-schooled eighth grader Andrew Ford won last year's competition. Washington student Gabriel Aguirre was the runner-up. Aguirre will return to the competition Saturday.