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Red Letter Day for 30 Spelling-Bee Competitors

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Joe Beltran and Alexandria Avalos live in East Los Angeles’ Ramona Gardens and are in the same second-grade classroom.

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But here the two friends were Saturday afternoon in unfamiliar surroundings, the busy Panorama Mall, trying to keep their thinking caps on straight and carry home a prize from the finals of the first citywide spelling bee for children from large housing projects.

Breezing through words such as escape , magnet , clearing and false , Joe, a soft-spoken 7-year-old, crossed his fingers nervously as he four times misspelled words, missing chances to eliminate Alexandria. Then Alexandria, who said she had practiced “really hard and took an extra long shower” that morning, had Joe on the ropes once, but missed boast .

Finally, Joe ended the suspense by correctly spelling act , the 32nd word in their head-to-head tussle.

Mario Matute, senior case manager at San Fernando Gardens in Pacoima, couldn’t have been happier with the competition. The event began with 30 elementary school contestants who represented five housing projects in three grade-level categories.

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It was his brainchild a few months ago to run spelling bees at the housing projects--Ramona and San Fernando Gardens as well as Nickerson Gardens in South-Central Los Angeles, Rancho San Pedro in San Pedro and Mar Vista Gardens in Culver City--and bring together finalists from each for a face-off.

“Housing projects have a stigma in the general population as places where all you have are drugs and gangs,” Matute said. “But we have a lot of good, working people and very intelligent kids. These kids just need opportunities in life.”

Not surprisingly, little Joe Beltran “reads night and day,” according to his mother, Oralia Almanza.

Alexandria Avalos’ father, Alex, is a teacher at the Main Street School in South-Central Los Angeles. “This is a very nice idea,” he said. “She doesn’t get to go out a lot, and the bus trip was something to look forward to.”

Jorge Reyes, a Los Angeles Housing Authority official, told the crowd of parents and children that the department hopes to make this an annual event.

Another Ramona Gardens student, Ricky Rodriquez, 9, won the category for third- and fourth-graders. Rodriguez, who especially likes karate books and ghost stories, correctly spelled decision and obedience.

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Eva Arias, 11, of Rancho San Pedro, a lover of mysteries and funny rhymes, captured the prize among fifth- and sixth-graders by spelling advertisement and blunder.

The winners received sets of books and $50 in gift certificates from the Panorama Mall. All the finalists got medallions to hang around their necks and free treats at the mall’s McDonald’s.

“I thought it was a great idea,” said DeEtte Bell of Nickerson Gardens, whose 8-year-old daughter, Lanesha Taylor, was among the competitors.

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