By OSWALD T. BROWN
WASHINGTON, D.C., March 16, 2022 – I was absolutely delighted when I saw the photos on Facebook of Minister of Education, Technology & Vocational Training the Hon. Glenys Hanna Martin meeting with the 21 Spelling Bee contestants who are vying to become the 2022 Bahamas National Spelling Bee champion.
As the person responsible for introducing the Scripps National Spelling Bee to The Bahamas in 1998 when I was editor o The Nassau Guardian, it is one of the accomplishments in my life of which I am extremely proud. I have likewise been very proud of the yearly commitment made by the Bahamas National Spelling Bee Committee (BNSBC) in organizing highly successful competitions over the years to elect a Bahamas champion.
However, this year, because of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on The Bahamas’ school system, I was unaware that the BNSBC planned to sponsor a Bahamas National Championship this year. Actually, in a previous article on the Bahamas National Spelling Bee, I recommended that the BNSBC consider entering 2021 spelling champion Roy Seligman as The Bahamas Champion in the 2022 Scripps championship.
Seligman, who was 12 years old at the time, tied for fourth place with three other spellers in the 2021 Scripps championships. Now 13 years old, Seligman will be seeking a fourth straight title when he competes in the 25th Bahamas National Spelling Bee championship on Sunday, March 20, 2022, at the Breezes Resort, West Bay Street at 3pm.
This year, the Scripps National Spelling Bee returns to the Washington, D.C., area to begin a new chapter in its nearly 100-year history, according to Scripps website.
“The 2022 national competition will air live on our new broadcast home: ION. This exciting move will make the Bee accessible to the widest audience ever,” the bawebsite notes.
The website adds, “LeVar Burton is the host of the 2022 Scripps National Spelling Bee. Accomplished actor, director, educator and lifelong children’s literacy advocate, Burton will host the televised Semifinals on June 1 and Finals on June 2, 2022, from the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center.”
Dr. J. Michael Durnil, executive director of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, said, “The selection of Mr. Burton as host aligns with the mission of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. To have such a prominent advocate for children’s literacy involved in this special and unique competition is a perfect match. We have the same goals: to educate tomorrow’s leaders and build reading competency in all young people.”
As I noted earlier, I consider introducing the Scripps National Spelling Bee to The Bahams in 1998 one of my treasured accomplishments in my life’s sojourn.
I previously lived in Washington, D.C., for 21 years before returning to The Bahamas “permanently” in 1996, and for more than 12 years, I was News Editor of The Washington Informer, an award-winning African American-owned newspaper that took over the sponsorship of the D.C. City-Wide Spelling Bee in 1982. I attended my first Scripps Bee in 1983 and was so impressed by its potential to have a tremendous impact on the educational system of The Bahamas that I promised myself back then that whenever I returned to The Bahamas I would make a concerted effort to convince those responsible for the administration of education in the country to support my idea to annually select a spelling champion to participate in the Scripps Bee.
Back then, newspapers were the primary sponsors of competitions through which Scripps National Spelling Bee contestants were determined, and when I became Editor of the Nassau Guardian in 1997, I discussed my idea with the late Kenneth “Six” Francis, the then Publisher and General Manager of The Guardian, and he threw his full support behind my initiative.
Fortunately, at the time Dion Foulkes was Minister of State for Education. As everyone in The Bahamas should know by now, whatever skills I possess in my chosen profession of journalism were nurtured and developed by Dion’s father, Sir Arthur Foulkes, who was News Editor at The Tribune when I joined that newspaper’s editorial staff as a trainee reporter in May of 1960. I later joined Sir Arthur at The Bahamian Times in 1965 after it was established several years earlier by the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) to promote its political message among the Bahamian electorate. So, I have known Dion since he was a little boy who distributed copies of Bahamian Times and consider him to be a “brother.”
My “brother” Dion did not have to do much to convince the then Minister of Education Ivy Dumont, who later became Governor General of The Bahamas, to fully support the first Bahamas National Spelling Bee, given her life-long commitment to the educational development of young Bahamians. A good friend of mine, Agatha Dean Delancy, and Tonya Adderley, who were both then employed by IBM Bahamas, helped to convince IBM’s then General Manager Felix Stubbs to become a principal sponsor along with The Guardian of the first Bahamas National Spelling Bee in 1998.
The winner o f that first Bahamas National Spelling Bee was Dominique Higgins, a 12-year-old Jordan Prince William High student, and he performed exceptionally well in the Scripps competition, but did not advance to the finals. Incidentally, 1998 was the year 12-year-old Jody-Anne Maxwell, Jamaica’s spelling champion, made history as the first non-American to win Scripps National Spelling Bee.
