WASHINGTON, D.C. — Prior to playing the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday, April 13, 2019, The Washington Nationals recognized the top finalists from the 37th Annual Washington Informer Spelling Bee and The 2019 Prince George’s County Spelling Bee, both of which are sponsored by The Washington Informer. Shown are (from left) DC Public Schools Spelling Bee Coordinator Jason Moore, who is joined by his son Rocket; D.C. Bee winner Teddy Palmore; D.C. Bee third-placed winner Thomas Power; Prince George’s County Bee winner Alyssa Burgos; P.G. County Bee runner-up Shree Ruttala; and Washington Informer Director of Advertising and Marketing Ron Burke.
D.C. Champion Teddy Palmore and P.G. County Champion Alyssa Burgos will represent their districts in the in 92nd annual Scripps National Spelling Bee, which will be held at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbour, Maryland, near Washington, D. C., from May 27 – 30, 2019.
The Bahamas will have two contestants in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. In addition to Roy Seligman, the 10-year-old Lyford Cay International School student who won The Bahamas National Spelling Bee championship, The Bahamas will also be represented by Kevin Williams, the 11-year-old Yellow Elder Primary student who finished second in this year’s BNSB championship finals.
The fact that The Bahamas is eligible to enter two contestants in the Scripps National Spelling Bee is due to a new invitational program called RSVBee introduced by Scripps last year, creating an additional avenue to allow jurisdictions to send two contestants to the Scripps National Bee.
Most jurisdictions quickly responded to the RSVBee offer last year, including Jamaica, which had two entrants in the 2018 Scripps Bee. 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 the 2018 Scripps Bee. Out of the 519 spellers, 278 of them were from the traditional sponsorship programs and 241 competed through RSVBee, including the overall winner, 14-year-old Karthik Nemmani of McKinney, Texas.
Kevin participated in the BNSB finals as the Western District of New Providence champion, which qualified him to be entered in the Scripps Bee through the RSVBee process, given the fact that one of the stipulations of RSVBee is that the second contestant must be a district champion.
Now that Kevin is a contestant in the Scripps Bee, having his coach accompany him is critical, and A fundraising effort is currently underway to cover the expenses for his coach. Persons wanting to contribute should contact Kevin’s school, Yellow Elder Primary.
Bee Week 2019 will take place at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. Spellers and their families will arrive Sunday, May 26, and the competition will begin on Monday, May 27 with the Preliminaries Test. Rounds of onstage spelling will take place Tuesday, May 28, Wednesday, May 29, and Thursday, May 30.
At 8:30 p.m. on Thursday, the Primetime Finals will begin, and the 2019 Scripps National Spelling Bee champion will emerge from the initial pool of 11 million school spelling bee participants!
