The Rotary Club of Anguilla hosted its 1st Annual Spelling Bee on November 22nd 2020 at the Teacher’s Resource Center. The Spelling Bee was keenly contested by representatives from each of the six (6) public primary schools. The Spelling Bee is an adjunct to the Rotaract/Rotary Spelling hosted in St Maarten by the Rotary Club of SXM Mid-Isle to promote Basic Education and Literacy.
On an annual basis the Rotary Club of Anguilla holds a spell off to determine which students will travel to St. Martin to represent the island and schools in the Spelling Bee in St. Martin. For the past two years, students from Anguilla have captured the coveted championship in St. Martin. In 2018, Anguillan students captured first and second place while in 2019 they captured first and third place with 10 of the 11 Anguillan students making it to the top 15.
This year the Rotary Club of Anguilla wanted to further highlight and publicize the Spelling Bee and the stellar performances of these amazing students. So the Club sought to live stream the spell off and invite members of the public to attend. This also provided a great opportunity to award all of the participants for their hard work even if they did not obtain a prize winning placement in the St. Martin Spelling Bee. Due to Covid-19 this decision proved crucial as the participants from Anguilla were unable to travel to St. Martin to participate in the Spelling Bee and ultimately the Spelling Bee for 2020 was cancelled. So the Spell Off in Anguilla for 2020 morphed into a lone competition.
The performance of the participants was remarkable. One mere word was the difference 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. Each round ended with an exciting tie-breaker that kept the audience at the edge of their seats. The final round consisted of two tie-breakers. Emerging as the top spellers were Zada Reid of the Orealia Kelly Primary School in 1st place, Nicalleah Millington of the Orealia Kelly Primary School in 2nd Place and Azhari Gumbs of the Alwyn Allison Richardson Primary School. The Rotary Club of Anguilla would like to extend its heartiest congratulations to the top spellers and all of the other participants in the Spelling Bee namely Magda Gumbs, Jahmal Gumbs, Amir Awashra of the Adrian T Hazell Primary School, Jediah Gill, Chezkyon Hughes, Jahmani Walwyn of the Valley Primary School, Majih Francis, Reynah Lico, Shemahni McDowal of the Morris Vanterpool Primary School, Keya Richardson also of the Alwyn Allison Richardson Primary School, Saniyah Webster, Dekyla Smith, Nayah Jon Baptiste of the Vivien Vanterpool Primary School and Princess D. Cedeno Fleming also of the Orealia Kelly Primary School.
The Club is grateful to the parents and teachers for preparing these students and supporting them.
They would also like to express thanks to In Anguilla (Mr Gilbert Fleming) and Lloyd Gumbs for broadcasting the event live and the Department of Education for their support.
Special thanks is expressed to the following persons for making this event a success Mrs. Sandra Fahie, Ms. Glenneva Hodge, Mrs. Ayisha Olivacce, Mr. Irlon Joseph, Interactors and the Rotary Team. A hearty thanks to the following businesses for sponsoring this event:
Coral Reef Bookstore
ANGLEC
Essentials Stationery & Gifts
Best Buy Supermarket Anguilla
CC Insurance Agency Ltd.
VANKA PLUMBING
NIKHIL’S FASHIONS
-Press Release
25th November 2020
(Published without editing by The Anguillian newspaper.)
