| | The event coming up in Hartford on Oct. 4 will require a lot of jocund alacrity. The participants must be imperturbable, not larmoyant, not be shillyshallyers, and try their best to be wunderkinds.Those are just a few of the words that might be thrown at participants in the upcoming annual Community Spelling Bee. A long, long list of difficult to spell words was handed out a few weeks ago to participants in the seventh annual bee, to be emceed by singer Javier Colon of West Hartford, the 2011 winner of the The Voice.The bee is organized by Achieve Hartford!, an organization working to close the achievement gap in city schools by working with local businesses, civic organizations and communities on activities that encourage education.We could do a gala to raise money, or a golf tournament, or some kind of ambitious event, but we want our annual fundraiser to be all about the kids, says Mary Crean of Achieve Hartford! Each member of the winning team gets a trophy and a mega education fun pack. They also will get iPads.This will be Colon's first time emceeing any event. A Bridgeport native and graduate of Bunnell High School in Stratford, Colon says stage fright kept him from participating in spelling bees in school.I always wanted to but I was always the nervous kid in school. I did do performances eventually but it took a long time. I never really wanted to be in front of a crowd, even singing anything, Colon says. My mom would bribe me to do anything in public. She would want me to do a talent show and she'd say 'I'll give you couple of dollars'.Part of his emceeing duties will be to sing a song, he says.At the spelling bee, which will be held at the Theater of the Performing Arts, teams of three from middle schools, high schools and youth organizations throughout the city will compete for the honor of the best spellers in Hartford. Participants are encouraged to come in costume.The teams of three at last count, there were 20 teams signed up, probably with more to come will be divided into six team groups called swarms. Each swarm will hold a mini competition until five of the swarm teams are defeated. Then another swarm will compete, and another, until all the teams have had a chance. At the end, the swarm winners will compete against each other.Using swarms help it to be not that long of an event, says Paul Diego Holzer, who worked with Crean to organize the bee. It's not one of those things where there are 180 kids and each goes up to the mike.Kate Howard Bender of Classical Magnet School in Hartford is the mentor of that school's team. I'm just a word lover. It's just a great way for us to celebrate language, Howard Bender says. We have fun, but we're really celebrating how malleable English is, with etymologies and esoteric words you don't often come across in life.As an added bit of fun, teams of adults from companies throughout the city will compete for the best adult speller award. The student teams participate for free. The adult teams pay a $250 registration fee.Last year's spelling bee raised $68,000 for Achieve Hartford! from sponsorships, ad sales, adult team fees, donations and other sources of revenue, Crean and Holzer say. This year, they hope to get $10,000 more than that.Holzer said the three member team setup also creates some fun dynamics on the stage. That's my favorite part of the bee, watching the dynamics of a team, he says. You see them discussing the spelling, see who won out with the way he wanted it to be spelled.If he won the debate and they get eliminated, there's one reaction. If they stay in, there's another. There's a leadership game happening on every team. It gets pretty intense.Helen Williams of West Hartford, who was a member of the winning Sparta Insurance team for three years and is now mentoring a student team, said she likes the three member team concept also.The format takes away some of the fear factor, Williams said. Everybody thinks a spelling bee is a microphone with a bright light in your face. That's a little scary. They don't do that. You sit at a table with write the word on a white board and hold up the board.Crean added that sending out the spelling list to all participants levels the playing field. These words are words that most people don't know, she said. Being a spelling genius won't win it for you. You must study the list.ACHIEVE HARTFORD!'S COMMUNITY SPELLING BEE will be on Friday, Oct. at the Theater of the Performing Arts, 359 Washington St. in Hartford. The Voice winner Javier Colon will be the host. The word reader will be Trinity College Prof. Irene Papoulis and the judges will be State Rep. 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