“Wookie. w-o-o-k-i-e. Wookie,” spelled Christine Amaya, freshman in journalism, making her the winner of Eaton Hall’s first “Talk Dirty for Clean Water” spelling bee.

The spelling bee was based on the cultural dictionary, UrbanDictionary.com, and raised funds to be donated to charity:water, an organization that uses 100 percent of its donations to fight the world water crisis.

One billion people in the world live without access to clean drinking water, and in many countries, women and children must walk miles to get to the nearest source that produces the contaminated water they drink each day. Dirty water and sanitation issues are the main causes of disease in many underdeveloped countries.

Wednesday night, the students of Eaton Hall set out to put their own dent in the problem. The spelling bee that forced students to spell words like “penis,” “virgitarian” and “urigasm” raised enough money to give eight people clean water for the next year. 

“Seeing the reaction on people’s faces as our hall director called out ‘moobs’ was priceless,” said Mary Wold, senior in dietetics. “Something about the awkward, uncomfortable looks mixed with laughter really made the event a hit.”

The spellers were able to enter the contest for free, but if they misspelled a word and wanted to continue, they could pay two dollars to buy their way back into the bee for the chance to win. Audience members also had their chance to get into the fun by trying their luck at the quarter drop. Participants had to drop a quarter through a vase of water into a cup at the bottom to win banana bars.  The bars were donated by the Union Drive Marketplace to the Eaton Hall Council sponsored event.

“It was a lot of fun for a good cause,” said Eaton Hall Director Carolyn Duven. “And people were more embarrassed hearing the words than I was saying them. I like to do stuff like this for the students.”

Amaya won a year’s subscription to Netflix, and the runners-up Seth Eibes, freshman in aerospace engineering, and Taylor Clark, sophomore in mechanical engineering, received ISU decorated cookies.