Tyler Literacy Council held their 31st annual spelling bee

TYLER, Texas (KLTV) -Today contestants lined up in costume to win the spelling bee challenge.

The Theme for this year was decades.

The contestants represent local sponsors here in Tyler(Sariah Bonds)

Whitney Patterson is the executive director for the Literacy Council of Tyler.

“So the Literacy Council of Tyler is a nonprofit organization that focuses on adult education and literacy services, and we have multiple different programs that fall under that umbrella,” says Whitney Patterson.

This spelling bee serves as fundraiser for the literacy council that serves close to 2,000 adult students every year.

Today the organization’s goal was to raise $70,000.

“We’re excited that we surpassed our sponsorship goal of $70,000, and we’ll be counting our audience spell and donations from today as well,” says Patterson.

Tyler Mayor Don Warren, Whitehouse Mayor James Wansley, and County Judge Nathaniel Moran served as the judges.

16 teams, each having a corporate sponsor, competed against each other for the winning spot.

Mark Pierce and Brenda Korich from Tyler Junior College won first place.

They tell us how it feels to be winners.

“Fabulous! Outstanding! Probably a lot of bigger words we can use right now but were kind of mind blown right now for having spelled for the past hour and a half,” said Pierce and Korich.