Two Orangeburg County School District teachers will be contestants on the television game show “25 Words or Less.”

Hunter-Kinard-Tyler pre-K teacher Valerie Funchess and Edisto Primary first-grade teacher Shay Dorch will be on the show when it airs on WLTX (Channel 19) at 9 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 19.

“I watch a lot of game shows,” Funchess said. “I always dreamed about it. I said, ‘I think I can do this.’”

Funchess said her appearance on “25 Words or Less” was a bucket list item for her.

“It was a lot of fun and hard work,” Funchess said. “We had to attend a boot camp to practice. That was an all-day experience. It was very competitive.”

The game show is hosted by television personality Meredith Vieira and pits two three-member teams of celebrities and civilians who face off in a fast-paced word game with a top prize of $10,000.

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The game show requires contestants to say or describe words in less than 25 words before being able to move to the final round where they have to describe ten words with 25 words or less in order to win $10,000.

The women could not disclose how much they won or how they fared in the show because of nondisclosure agreements. The women also did not release the name of the celebrity they were partnered with.

Funchess, who has been a teacher at HKT for 13 years, having previously taught at Edisto Primary for 25 years, says she found out about the opportunity to appear on the gameshow through Facebook. Auditions were being held.

Dorch has been a fan of “25 Words or Less” for some time, while Funchess began watching the show during the audition process.

Both women have the board game.

The two women applied for the gameshow and then received the answer they were waiting for.

“They called both of us for a Zoom audition and then we had to go to Atlanta to try out for the show,” Funchess said.

“I don’t know how many hours we sat before the audition,” Funchess continued. They were busy “fixing up makeup” and readying for the grand appearance on the show.

“It was just a time,” she said.

“I was really nervous,” Funchess said. “We were excited when we got chosen.”

The show’s filming was in March and the women have had to keep their appearance a secret until recently.

“We had to hold it in for a long time,” Funchess said, laughing.

“It is exciting,” Dorch said, echoing Funchess. “I have always watched game shows and I was like ‘Oh my God! I would love to be on a game show.’”

“It was amazing,” she said. “I would never forget that opportunity.”

Dorch said the experience, “was not as strenuous as I thought it would be.”

“Meeting new people and actually being face to face with celebrities kind of made me feel like a celebrity,” Dorch said. “The fun was unmatched.”

Dorch said her experience helped to dispel some misconceptions about Hollywood being elitist.

She said, “everyone was so nice to us.”

“We were rooting for each other,” Dorch said.

Dorch says her youngest daughter, who is a senior in high school, is excited about her mother’s appearance on the show. Her older daughter, who is in college in North Carolina, is excited, too, but is concerned about how her mom acted on television.

“I have a big personality,” Dorch said

She plans to watch the show with her college friends.

“That will be an experience for her,” Dorch said.

Dorch says she has not told her students yet, but says she plans to introduce the game to them in some lesson plans.

Dorch said her colleagues at work already have plans to record the show.

“This is kind of rare to know someone who appears on television,” Dorch said. “They are excited and they are happy for me.”

Dorch thanked her principal and the district for letting her fulfill her dream.

Now that the show is close to airing, Funchess said, “I am nervous about it showing.”

The teachers met about nine years ago and have been close friends since.

They have tried to appear on a game show before. They both tried out for “Beat Shazam” about four years ago.

“That was a bust,” Funchess said.

Funchess also tried out for “Press Your Luck” about two years ago.

“I made it to almost the finals in the audition,” Funchess said.

Dorch would do it all over again.

“If they called me, I would go,” she said.

Clips of the show will also run on Facebook and it will be on YouTube 30 days after it airs, Funchess said.

Contact the writer: gzaleski@timesanddemocrat.com or 803-533-5551. Check out Zaleski on Twitter at @ZaleskiTD.

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