BNSB CHAIRPERSON CONFIRMS THAT THE BAHAMAS WILL PARTICIPATE IN THIS YEAR’S SCRIPPS BEE

The Bahamas was well represented in the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee by Wes Underwood, a 13-year-old Grade 8 student at Samuel Guy Pinder All-Age School in Spanish Wells, who he was eliminated in Round Three of the Preliminaries

By OSWALD T. BROWN

WASHINGTON, D.C., February 6, 2024 – Ms. Cylestina Williams, Bahamas National Spelling Bee (BNSB) Chairperson, today confirmed that The Bahamas will participate in this year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee that takes place at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland, near Washington, D.C., from May 28 to May 30.

In an email responding to questions I raised in an article about whether or not The Bahamas would be participating in this year’s Scripps Bee, Ms. Williams said, “From July of 2023, The Ministry of Education and Technical Vocational Training signed its annual contract with Scripps National Spelling Bee. Between September 2023 and January 2024, various webinars were hosted by the MOETVT for Coaches, Coordinators and local Bee Officials across The Bahamas.”

She added, “On 31st of January 2024, the Associate Schools District Bee was held. On 1st February all New Providence Public School districts, all Family Island districts, BASIS and the Catholic Board of Education held Spelling Bee District competitions. From these competitions, a number of District winners were crowned.

“On March 17, 2024, the Bahamas National Spelling Bee 27th Annual Spelling Bee Final Competition will be held in New Providence at SuperClubs Breezes. From that competition, the champion and the 2nd place finisher will travel to compete in Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington.”

Hopefully, Clint Watson, General Manager of the Broadcasting Corporation of The Bahamas (BCB), will continue the impressive leadership of the BCB that resulted in the recent commendable rebranding of ZNS and reverse the terrible decision made last year to stop broadcasting the BNSB finals live on ZNS-TV.

Living here in Washington, D.C., I used to look forward to watching the BNSB on TV with the same enthusiasm as watching my beloved Washington Nationals playing baseball and my beloved Washington Redskins playing football.

What’s more, I am sure that the televised BNSB finals had a huge following among residents of our Family Islands, especially those islands with a contestant in the BNSB finals. There certainly is sufficient time before the BNSB is staged to get the necessary sponsorship for it to be broadcast live.

More than 200 contestants representing every US state as well as from The Bahamas, Canada, Germany, Ghana, the US Virgin Islands, Guam and Puerto Rico are expected to participate in this year’s Scripps Bee.