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Bee spells H-E-L-P for area literacy efforts
10 teams enjoy friendly competition in 21st annual event
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Bill Coates, left, celebrates after teammate Don Landrum, right, delivers a correct spelling for their First Baptist Church team.
Redintegrate.Definition please?To make whole or complete again; restore to a perfect state; renew.Can you use it in a sentence please?There are people in the Gainesville-Hall County community who are actively trying to redintegrate literacy in adults.Redintegrate. R-E-D-I-N-T-E-G-R-A-T-E.The Gainesville-Hall County Alliance for Literacy held its 21st Annual Spelling Bee on Tuesday night, where teams committed to that restoration were pitted against each other in a friendly spelling competition.But this is no ordinary spelling bee.Ten teams from the area, including teams from Brenau University, Cargill, Gainesville Rotary Club and a handful of churches, among others, stepped up to the microphone for a cause: raising money to support the alliance’s mission to raise the literacy rate in the area.“Most people don’t just understand the critical need for literacy skills in our community,” said Dorothy Shinafelt, executive director for the alliance. “We do have a substantial issue.”The alliance helps provide resources, as well as numerous other services, for the Adult Learning Center, located at Lanier Technical College.