Spelling bees aren’t just for kids.

Ten teams will face off Tuesday night in a bee that raises funds for the Gainesville-Hall County Alliance for Literacy, which hosts adult education programs in the area.

“Some of them are teams that we’ve had for years, but we’ve also got a couple new ones,” said Dorothy Shinafelt, the alliance’s executive director.

No matter their experience, they will face some tough words from wordsmith Gay Hammond. Last year, Lanier Technical College’s team won by correctly spelling “philogyny” and “regisseur.”

“She keeps it just moving. It’s a lot of fun,” Shinafelt said. “The words are extremely difficult; we have got some very serious spellers involved every year.”

The First Baptist Church of Gainesville will for the first time have a team in the competition. It’s been a busy time at the church, with Easter and other Holy Week services, and the team hasn’t had much time for preparation, the Rev. Bill Coates said.

“We’ll  just see how it goes next week,” he said Thursday, adding that his team still plans to win.

Teams, which are made up of just a few members, come up to the microphone to receive their word from Hammond.

They have 30 seconds to confer and can ask judges for a definition, derivation or to have it used in a sentence.

There is also an audience participation round, where those interested can purchase a card for $5 and attempt to spell 10 words correctly.

The person who spells the most words correctly gets a prize.

In the end, no matter the winner, literacy is the real goal, and the bee is the primary fundraiser for the alliance.

“We started thinking why haven’t we done it before since it supports such a wonderful cause, helping with literacy in the county,” Coates said of having a team in the bee. “So we’re just very happy to participate.”

In Hall County, 69 percent of those 18 to 24 and 74.5 percent of those older than 25 have completed high school, including equivalency, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2005-2009 American Community Survey. That’s compared to 78.5 percent and 82.9 percent, respectively, in Georgia, and 82.8 percent and 84.6 percent nationwide who have completed high school.

The alliance’s primary focus is adult education and it offers free instruction to anyone 16 or older who is not in school or whose native language is not English. That includes basic literacy services, English as a second language and GED preparation, Shinafelt said. The alliance has served almost 45,000 students since it began counting the numbers in 1996, many of those being between ages 16 and 24.

“They’re young people that have realized their past mistakes and they’re trying to improve their lives,” Shinafelt said.

The bee will be 7 p.m. Tuesday at Pearce Auditorium on the campus of Brenau University. It is $5 to attend.