Saturday, October 14, 2023
Doors Open 6:00 P.M. | Program at 6:45 P.M.
House Three Thirty
532 West Market Street, Akron, OH 44303
This year, ACCESS is excited to be kicking off our inaugural Adult Spelling Bee event!
The Adult Spelling Bee will feature teams, which will be made up of three participants each, and will take place inside the newly renovated Cabaret Room at House Three Thirty!
This will be a night filled with humor, hijinks and spirited competition to help impact the lives of women and children experiencing homelessness!
The dress code for the evening will be spelling bee-chic (dressy casual). All attendees will have an opportunity to enjoy heavy hor d’oeuvres, charcuterie and a full bar, with each ticketed guest receiving one free drink ticket.
You will truly want to be a part of this can’t miss evening!
Calling all orthographers!
Do you think you can build a top notch team to earn the bragging rights of being named the best spellers in Summit County? If you and your two teammates are up for the challenge, you are exactly who we need for the Adult Spelling Bee! Sign up your beehive today and see if you have what it takes to buzz your way to victory!
Sign up your beehive today!
Don’t forget to study the rules of the Adult Spelling Bee!
Are You Feeling Lucky?
Ready for a weekend getaway? You will truly be able to unwind on this perfect escape! Travel in style with a complimentary rental of a luxury 2023 Mercedes GLC300 from Mercedes-Benz of Akron. Take your pick of premier lodging cottages in Geneva at Vineyard Woods. This cozy location is within 8 miles of fifteen different incredible local wineries! You won’t want to forget your new picnic basket filled with goodies including wine and sweets for the trip! Golfers will enjoy fitting in a round of golf for 3 at the beautiful Westfield course.
Tickets are $50 each and there are ONLY 150 tickets available, meaning the odds are in your favor to be the winner!!!
Included in package:
$500 gift certificate for Vineyard Woods Lodging
Complimentary weekend rental of a 2023 Mercedes GLC300 from Mercedes-Benz of Akron
Golf for 3 with ACCESS Board Member, Tim Able at Westfield Country Club
A water bottle, two foldable stadium chairs, and a picnic basket, with wine and snacks, courtesy of Mercedes-Benz of Akron
The drawing will take place at the Adult Spelling Bee on October 14. The individual with the winning ticket does not need to be present to win the prize.
Meet Our Host
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Sarah is WQMX's Program Director and the co-host on Scott and Sarah in the Morning on 94.9 WQMX in Akron, Ohio.
She was born and raised in Northeast Ohio. She has been in the radio business since 2004 and has been part of the WQMX team since 2008. Sarah graduated from Kent State University with a degree in Broadcast Journalism and always knew she wanted to be on the radio.
With her love of country music, she became a part of the Country Music Association and the Academy of Country Music in 2015. Scott and Sarah in the Morning has been nominated for multiple CMA & ACM Medium Market Personality of the Year Awards, while the station was nominated and won an ACM for Medium Market Station of the Year in 2016.
Sarah loves the color pink, the Ohio State Buckeyes, Cleveland sports, spending time with family and friends and by far her most favorite country artist is Sugarland!
Meet Our Judges
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Shammas Malik serves on Akron City Council, representing Northwest Akron. After winning the Democratic primary for Mayor in May of 2023, he is the presumptive next mayor of Akron.
Shammas was born and raised in Akron, attending Firestone High School. He studied Political Science and International Studies at The Ohio State University, and then went on to graduate cum laude from Harvard Law School.
After finishing his law degree, Shammas moved home to contribute to the community that made such an impact on him, spending two years as an Assistant Director of Law in the City of Akron Law Department, before running for Council.
Shammas believes deeply that together we can build a stronger and more equitable Akron.
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Carla J. Davis is a communications professional with experience in public relations, journalism, communications, and marketing. She is the Marketing Communications Director of the Akron-Summit County Public Library, responsible for planning and directing system-wide marketing and communications.
Carla is the Founder and President of CJ Davis Enterprises, LLC, which includes Carla Davis Communications, a strategic communications business, and Carla Davis Music.
Before joining the Library, Carla was a copyeditor in the award-winning Akron Beacon Journal newsroom. Previously, she developed ABJ promotional campaigns, including one for the Pulitzer Prize-winning year-long series, A Question of Color. The newspaper received the Pulitzer Prize’s John S. Knight Gold Medal for Meritorious Public Service for the series.
In addition, Carla was the Akron Beacon Journal Spelling Bee Director from 1992-1996. She also attended the National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. twice, during the same period, and helped establish the Homeschooling Spelling Bee.
Her current board and civic memberships include:
Akron Press Club, Immediate Past President
City of Akron Racial Equity and Social Justice Taskforce and Chair of the RESJ taskforce Communications Subcommittee
Cleveland Clinic Akron General Community Advisory Council
Haven of Rest Board of Trustees
ATHENA Akron Board of Directors
She is a past board member of the Greater Akron Music Association (Akron Symphony Orchestra), VNS Hospice Advisory Board, Project Grad Akron, Summit County Regional and Cultural Arts Board, and Arlington Christian Academy.
Carla is a Leadership Akron Class 29 member (Divine 29) and co-facilitator for Leadership Akron’s Signature Program opening retreats.
Her passions include women’s emotional health, civil rights issues, mental health counseling, and music. She has donated her singing abilities and voiceover talent to many worthwhile causes.
Carla is a recipient of the Judge Brenda Burnham Unruh Servant Leader Award - Love Akron; Women of Achievement Award -Women’s Network, Inc.; Woman of the Year in the Faith category -The Women’s History Project of the Akron Area, Inc.; The University of Akron Office of Multicultural Development Distinguished Alumnus Award; and a Knight Foundation Arts Challenge Award.
Carla graduated from the University of Akron with a B.A. in Communications and an M.A. in Clinical Counseling from Ashland University (Ashland Theological Seminary). She resides in NE Ohio with her family and enjoys traveling, reading, music, and spending time with friends and family. The beach is her happy place, this side of Heaven.
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Bruce Winges is retired as editor and vice president of the Akron Beacon Journal/BeaconJournal.com.
He joined the Beacon in 1982 after working at the Huntington (W.Va.) Herald-Dispatch for more than five years. Bruce held a variety of editing and management positions at the Beacon. He was named editor in 2007 and led the newsroom for 12 years before retiring in 2019.
Under his leadership, the Beacon Journal newsroom won more than 250 first-place awards from the Associated Press, Press Club of Cleveland and Ohio Society of Professional Journalists, among others. The Beacon was named the best newspaper in Ohio a total of three times by the Press Club of Cleveland and the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists. The staff also won a Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism.
Bruce is currently the president of the Akron Press Club. He also is the president of the Cuyahoga Valley Photographic Society.
In his retirement, Bruce handles publicity for his brother-in-law’s bluegrass band, Crandall Creek. He also opens for the band. The video for the title song from his Eastern Kentucky album has more than 675,000 combined views on Facebook and YouTube.
He is a native of Louisville, Kentucky. He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Kentucky.
Bluegrass music is an acquired taste – if you don’t like bluegrass acquire some taste!
