FREEPORT, Grand Bahama — Azaria Louis, a nine-year-old 5th-grade student at Maurice E. Moore Primary School, and Jayden Pinder, a 10-year-old 5th-grade student at Hugh Campbell Primary, will represent the Grand Bahama District in the 22nd annual Bahamas National Spelling Bee (BNSB) finals on Sunday, March 10, 2019 in the Crown Ballroom at Atlantis on Paradise Island.
Azaria and Jayden were winners of the East Grand Bahama and West Grand Bahama competitions, which were held simultaneously during the Grand Bahama District Spelling Bee held on Thursday, January 31, 2019, at the Bahamas Union of Teachers (BUT) Hall on West Atlantic Drive in Freeport.
Twenty-six spellers from Government and private schools in Grand Bahama and Bimini participated in simultaneous competitions. Nine-year-old Azaria emerged was the winner of the East Grand Bahama District and 10-year-old Jayden was the first-place winner in the West Grand Bahama and Bimini District.
Vernice Flores of Bishop Michael Eldon High School, and Macquell Justin of Freeport Primary School placed second and third, respectively, in the East Grand Bahama District, while Vashanique Kemp of Dominion Tech Primary and Zahria Wedderburn of West End Primary placed second and third, respectively, in the West Grand Bahama and Bimini District.
The Grand Bahama District has been a force to be reckoned with in previous years, capturing the national title a staggering seven times: Deshae Morley, Grand Bahama Catholic High (1999-2000); Britanny Wilkinson, Freeport Anglican High (2000-2001); Denice Deveaux, Grand Bahama Catholic High (2001-2002); Joeanne Salise, St. Georges High (2003-2004); Joeanne Salise, St. Georges High (2004-2005); Anjanet Loon, Grand Bahama Catholic High (2006-2007); Anjanet Loon, Grand Bahama Catholic High (2007-2008).
“It is our desire that our Spelling Bees come out ‘stinging’ to capture our rightful position to win the national title in March and go on to place at least in the top ten in Washington, D.C. in May,” said Ms. Sheila Scavella, chairperson of Grand Bahama District Committee, said earlier this week. “The Ministry of Education is greatly appreciative to the dedicated and hard-working coaches, who spent grueling hours preparing these spellers. Additionally, the supportive parents who also assist in coaching.”
According to the Bahamas National Spelling Bee Facebook page, The Associate Schools in New Providence held their competition to select a winner to compete in the BNSB finals on Wednesday, January 23, and the remaining other District Competitions were scheduled to be held yesterday (January 31), so by now the BNSB know all of the finalists who will compete on March 10 in the Crown Ballroom on Paradise Island.
Every year since the Scripps National Spelling Bee was introduced to The Bahamas in 1998 by Oswald T. Brown when he was Editor of the Nassau Guardian, with strong support from the then Minister of State for Education Dion Foulkes, the Ministry of Education has organized competitions at all levels of its school system — starting with in-school competitions and subsequently regional competitions, like the Grand Bahama District Spelling Bee — to select finalists to compete in The Bahamas National Spelling Bee, the winner of which represents The Bahamas in the annual Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. at end of May.
Last year, Bahamas champion Johnathan Randall, the Eleuthera District champion, performed extremely well in the 91st annual Scripps Bee held from May 27 through June 1 at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center at National Harbor in Oxon Hill Maryland, near Washington, D.C. He spelt all of his on-stage words correctly, but did not score well enough in the written test to advance beyond the preliminary rounds to the championship rounds.
The Bahamas National Spelling Bee Committee (BNSBC), however, missed a golden opportunity to enter two contestants in the Scripps National Bee. As a result of a new invitational program called RSVBee, a new path was created to allow jurisdictions to send two champion spellers to the Scripps National Bee.
Many jurisdictions that traditionally send contestants to the Scripps Bee were quick to respond to the introduction of the new program, and as a result the number of participants in the 2018 Spelling Bee increased substantially from the 291 spellers who participated in 2017 to 519 contestants in last year’s Scripps Bee. Out of the 519 spellers, 241 became contestants via RSVBee, including the overall winner Karthik Nemmani, 14, of McKinney, Texas.
Participants in the Scripps Bee include spelling champions from across the United States, The Bahamas, Canada, the People’s Republic of China, Ghana, Japan, Jamaica, Mexico, and New Zealand. The prestigious educational competition is also open to spelling champions from U.S. territories such as Guam, American Samoa, the Navajo Nation, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, along with overseas military bases in Germany and South Korea.
