WASHINGTON, D.C. – The 38th annual D.C. City-Wide Spelling Bee, sponsored by The Washington Informer and Washington Informer Charities, will be broadcast on NBC-4 on Sunday, April 19, 2020, from noon to 1:00 p.m. and on District Knowledge Network (DKN/OCTFME) on April 19 from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 pm. The winner will represent the District o Columbia in the 2020 Scripps National Spelling Bee, which will be held at the Gaylord Resort and Convention Center in Oxon Hill Maryland, near Washington, .D.C., from May 24-29.
The history of how the Washington Informer became the sponsor of the D.C. City Wide Spelling Bee in 1982 is a fascinating story. In some respects, there is a symbiotic relationship between the D.C. Spelling Bee and The Bahamas National Spelling Bee, given the fact that when I previously lived in Washington, D.C., before returning to The Bahamas “permanently” in 1996, I was News Editor of The Washington Informer.
I attended my first Scripps Bee in 1983 and I 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. I returned to The Bahamas permanently in 1996 and submitted an application to Scripps National Spelling Bee in 1997, with strong support from the late Kenneth “Six” Francis, Publisher and General Manager of the Nassau Guardian, which owns the Freeport News, where I was the Editor.
Our application was successful, and I was Editor of the Nassau Guardian when Dominique Higgins, a 12-year-old Jordan Prince William High student, became the first Bahamas Spelling Champion to compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in 1998. Dominique performed exceptionally well, but did not advance to the finals. Incidentally, 1998 was the year that 12-year-old Jody-Anne Maxwell, Jamaica’s spelling champion, made history as the first non-American to win Scripps National Spelling Bee.
As I noted, the history of the Washington Informer’s sponsorship of the D.C. City-wide Spelling Bee is a fascinating story. Under The Informer’s current publisher, Denise Rolark-Barnes, who literally “grew up” with the newspaper as the daughter of The Informer’s founder, the late Dr. Calvin W. Rolark, The Informer has expanded its presence and influence in Prince George’s County, Maryland, and is also the sponsor of the Prince George’s County Spelling Bee, which will be held this Friday, March 13.
The first D.C. City-wide Spelling Bee was held at Backus Junior High School in March, 1982. Read the full story on the history of the D.C. City-Wide Spelling Bee at http://wicharities.org/spelling-bee-history/?fbclid=IwAR1JzGhGcoBSwG2pT9EaSN61Dpv1pVl5RL4_T912VlmMFhz-MfqLqj8tDzc
