McElroy "Gives Back" to Literacy
On April 12, McElroy Translation was delighted to participate in the Literacy Coalition of Central Texas’ 4th Annual “Great Grown-up Spelling Bee for Literacy.” Our team of three spellers, who were selected in a bee held at McElroy a few weeks earlier, were proofreaders Clay Browne and Ashley Benning and receptionist Cathy Pyrek. They were supported by a team of “cheerleaders” from McElroy, who arrived at the event armed with pom-poms, noisemakers, and noisy attitudes! According to speller Cathy Pyrek, “Who knew a bunch of word nerds could have such a rip-roaring good time?”
The Literacy Coalition’s annual spelling bee raises money to support literacy in the Austin community by training legislative advocates, increasing the capacity of literacy providers, and teaming up with healthcare partners on an innovative health literacy initiative. Area companies and organizations, including hospitals, law firms, church groups, utility providers, and grocery stores, make donations to the Literacy Coalition so that they can send a team of spellers and cheerleaders to the lunchtime event, held at a local restaurant. McElroy made it to the third of five rounds this year.
As the bee progressed into its final rounds, the words became extraordinarily difficult—difficult to pronounce, spell, or understand! Scalenohedron? Pteridosperm? Antepirrhema? Speller Clay Browne said, “Those church ladies were ringers!” Our team spelled “alchemy” and “edelweiss” correctly but missed “pangolin” (a scaly anteater found in tropical regions of Africa and Asia, see www.wikipedia.org).
McElroy enjoys “giving back,” particularly in areas that are meaningful to our employees or relate to the work we do. As translation experts, we are wordsmiths, and both a spelling bee as an event and literacy as a cause seemed right up our alley. Our third speller, Ashley Benning, says, “The bee was a lot of fun and the atmosphere was very festive, and I can’t wait to participate again next year!”
