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Tommy Denham, a fifth grader from Tokeneke Elementary School, crossed the River Thames, stood atop the Acropolis, and polished off the competition in winning the 20th Connecticut Geographic Bee, a competition of The National Geographic Society and sponsored at the state level by Plum Creek. The event was held on the campus of Central Connecticut State University on Friday, April 4, 2008. Tommy, 11, took first place by answering this championship round question: “Gleaming Carrara marble is mined in the Tuscany region of what country?” His answer, Italy, allowed Tommy to score a perfect 3 for 3 in the championship round, besting second place finisher Chris Sun, an eighth grader from Old Lyme Middle School. The win earned Tommy a $100 check, a National Geographic globe, a library of National Geographic maps, and a trip to the National Geographic Bee in Washington, D.C. where he will compete for a $25,000 college scholarship and a lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society. Fifty-five of the nation’s best geography whizzes will compete at Society headquarters May 20-21, 2008. The national competition will be moderated by Alex Trebek of televisions Jeopardy!©. All 100 contestants were praised for their geographic knowledge by Xiaoping Shen, chair of the Geography Department at Central Connecticut State University, Bee Coordinator Bill DeGrazia, and final round moderator Brad Drazen of WVIT-TV 30. Third place finisher Aidan Pelisson, a seventh grader from Newtown Middle School was already looking forward to next year’s Bee. In all, it was a remarkable event with fifteen perfect scores in the preliminary rounds. A tiebreaker round was held to get down to ten finalists. The other perfect geographers in the preliminary rounds were John Christensen of Darien, Raghav Ranga of Wethersfield, Amanda Geib of Milford, Ronan Lucey of West Hartford, Alexander Thompson of Norwalk, Ellery Rourk of New Preston, Ted Randich of Newington, Robert Chu of Woodbridge, Peter Jensen of Wilton, Se Jin Jun of Avon, George Day-Reiss of Salisbury, and Robert Spencer-Molloy of Tarriffville.
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