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The "Stellar Spellers" lived up their name at the 17th annual Biz Bee Thursday night in a record field of 26 teams

Barbara Schuhmann, Dan Bergeron and Bob Howard took the title for the Downtown Fairbanks Rotary Club. In addition to their spelling skills, they displayed the best wizard-like hats and oddball eyeglasses.

Second place went to the "Word Medics" of Fairbanks Memorial Hospital, Jenny Patch, Victor Johanson and Ellen Foster. They were dressed in surgical gowns, caps and masks for the operating room.

But the only operating they did was to identify a long series of difficult words that are not used outside of spelling bees.

Before the competition, the Word Medics joked about how they wanted to avoid finishing last. They had no need to worry.

The team was hastily assembled from the hospital staff last week when an e-mail went out asking for volunteers. Pauline Fusco was an alternate for the hospital team. The other team members said Johanson was their best wordsmith.

The final two words, spelled correctly by the studious Rotary contingent, were "salaam" and "foggara." Salaam is a gesture of respect, while foggara is an underground conduit for water in desert regions.

I served as a judge, along with Judy Kleinfeld and Nicole Stewart. Jim Matherly was the pronouncer, while Brad Johnson was the timer and Cynthia Klepaski and Betsy Robertson kept score.

The competition lasted nearly four hours at the Westmark and the final segment was an extended one in which the Rotary Club team and the hospital representatives battled against each other. The rules say that when two teams remain one of the teams has to miss a word and the other team has to correct that spelling and spell a second word before the game ends.

The event, sponsored by the Daily News-Miner, is the major annual fundraiser for the Literacy Council of Alaska. Thanks to the spellers, their sponsors and the hundreds of supporters who attended the event, nearly $28,000 was raised.

Before the competition began, the Downtown Rotary Club presented a gift of more than $1,000 to the Literacy Council.