[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 6]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 8801]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 CONGRATULATING KASSIE McKNIGHT FOR COMPETING IN THE SCRIPPS NATIONAL 
                              SPELLING BEE

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BILLY LONG

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, June 4, 2015

  Mr. LONG. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Kassie McKnight 
for her achievement in representing southwest Missouri at the Scripps 
National Spelling Bee.
  Kassie is a Bolivar native and was an eighth grader at Bolivar Middle 
School during the time of the competition. She worked hard to get to 
the top, going through her local spelling bee in Bolivar to the 
Southwest Missouri Regional Spelling Bee at Missouri State University 
in Springfield. Kassie competed against 34 other spellers through 64 
tough rounds at the regional competition, ultimately spelling 
``exacerbate'' correctly to secure her spot at the 2015 Scripps 
National Spelling Bee in Washington. Kassie was one of 285 contestants 
to compete in the esteemed national bee.
  These accomplishments took a great deal of hard work, including hours 
of practice and completion of numerous spelling drills, not to mention 
the ability to spell many difficult words that are rarely used in 
everyday conversation. I urge my colleagues to join me in 
congratulating Kassie on a job well done. It is great to represent in 
Congress such amazing talent found in the Missouri's Seventh 
Congressional District.

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