There’s still time to get your team on the list for the Learn to Read Council’s 23rd annual corporate spelling bee, taking place 10 a.m. Saturday in the Athens High School cafeteria. There’s also plenty of space to get in if you just want to watch local spellers work their way through each round in the hopes of a personally engraved plaque.

“There’ll be some serious spelling going on,” Rhonda Andrews, director of the Learn to Read Council, said.

Each team will be made up of three individuals. After being given a word, the team will work together to spell it, then send a team captain onstage to spell the word. At the end of each round, the judges give the correct spelling and determine who, if anyone, is eliminated.

Andrews said in past years, there have been 20 or more rounds before a winner is declared. One year saw a round in which all five remaining teams failed to spell the word correctly, allowing them all to move one round closer to first place.

“We’ve got some really good spellers,” Andrews said. “Last year, it was 20-something rounds. I know one year we went into the upper 20s. We just kept going back and forth until someone is declared the winner.”

Even with so many possible rounds in the competition, Andrews said winners are usually crowned around noon or 12:30 p.m. Those who are eliminated early get the option of leaving or joining the spectators to see which of their competitors takes the prize.

“We love for people to come and watch it,” Andrews said. “We have lunch items and refreshments.”

It costs $300 to form a team, and registration is open to anyone. Proceeds from the event help cover expenses at Learn to Read that might not be covered by other grants that the organization receives.

“We’ve been very fortunate to get grant money from the city or county, but the funds have to be spent the way we tell them, so we have to look for other ways to pay the overhead,” Andrews said.

So far, 10 teams have signed up to participate. Most are local businesses or churches, but Andrews said one team is made up of three individuals sponsored by their aunt.

They call themselves “The A-Team.”

In some cases, a group or individual will donate the fee but decline to participate themselves. When that happens, Andrews and the Learn to Read Council attempt to find spellers for the team. They also sometimes search for alternates, or people that can step in if a team suddenly finds themselves missing a member.

For more information, including how to get your team involved or make a donation to sponsor another team, contact the Learn to Read Council at 256-230-3050 or learntoreadcouncil@gmail.com.