Sunday, 3rd November was an exciting end to a three-week Spelling Bee competition held on the island of St. Maarten/St. Martin.
Each year the Rotary Club of St. Maarten Mid Isle, in collaboration with the Rotaract Club of St. Maarten Sunrise, hosts a Spelling Bee competition, open to the students of St. Maarten, St. Martin and Anguilla, aged nine to ten. This year there was a total of thirty-five students from thirteen different primary schools. With the assistance of the Education Department, the Anguilla Air and Seaport Authority, the generous sponsorship of the Anguilla Social Security Board and the Niki V, Samantha and Excellence Boat owners; the Rotary Club of Anguilla was able to facilitate taking a team of eleven students over to the competition. Nine of the students were competing and the other two were observers.
The preliminary round, held on Sunday, 20th October, was a written round, in which the thirty plus students were given twenty words to spell. In the end only ten students moved on to the semifinals. Of that ten, three students from Anguilla managed to secure a spot – Jahselah Bruno of the Valley Primary School, Makalia Richardson and Emily Williams of the Alwyn Allison Richardson Primary School.
On Sunday, 27th October, the semi-finals kicked off. Each student had a chance to spell twenty words aloud. The end of the semi-final round came down to an intense tie breaker between one of Anguilla’s students and a student from St. Maarten. Anguilla was victorious and all three participants moved on to the third and final round.
As the defending champs (and also second place holder), Anguilla was ready to do its best and bring home the trophy once again. Sunday, 3rd November saw Team Anguilla backed by some fifty plus supporters, dressed in various shades of orange. The students had fun and did their best and Anguilla, for the second time in a row, amounted victorious.
Emily Williams secured first place, Makalia Richardson secured third place and Jahselah Bruno secured fifth place. All the students performed extremely well. Emily Williams was specially recognized as she attained a perfect score. All twenty words over the course of each round had been spelt correctly.
The students received the following prizes:
1st – Trophy, Mac Desktop Computer and a Printer
3rd – Trophy and Ipad
5th – Fitbit
The school, of the winning student received an HP Desktop Computer and a Printer and the school with the most supporters present each week was also awarded a printer. Both prizes went to the Alwyn Allison Richardson Primary School.
A special thank you to all the persons, coaches, teachers, family, friends, Rotarians and sponsors, who came out each week to support the students and encourage them. Anguilla had the largest delegation each week with forty-six supporters on week one, thirty-five supporters on week two and fifty-two supporters on week three.
A special thank you to all the students who took part in the competition and represented Anguilla and their schools:
Morris Vanterpool Primary
Gabrielle LeClerc
Ephraim Hughes Hodge
Shanoii Montoute
Vivien Vanterpool Primary
Dekyla Smith
K’yaun Hodge
Tayshawn Richardson
Valley Primary
Jahselah Bruno
Delecia Harrigan
Tsehai Carty
Alwyn Allison Richardson Primary
Makalia Richardson
Emily Williams
Gratitude is again extended to the partners and sponsors who continue to make endeavours like this a reality. The Rotary Club of Anguilla cannot say thank you enough.
