Spelling Bee competition starts

Sixty-eight primary schools, grouped into eight zones, will participate in the 2013 Scotiabank Rotaract Club Spelling Bee competition to be held this month.{{more}}

The preliminary round of the competition is slated to begin today, October 8 and run until Friday, October 11, and would be held at the Fisheries Complex in Kingstown, with the finals to take place at Frenches House on Saturday, October 19.

At the launch of the competition on Monday, September 23, organizers and sponsors of the event gathered at the Courts St Vincent Limited conference room, lauded the competition as a means of enriching literacy in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

The Ministry of Education was represented by Marla Nanton, who said that the event is in line with what her ministry encourages in its department of literacy, language and communication.

Lucine Edwards, president of the Rotaract Club of Kingstown, said that the competition, one of its many community outreach projects, brings out the confidence of the students who participate, and helps with their enthusiasm towards reading and spelling.

Also speaking at the launch were Noelene Dickson, representing Scotiabank, Alexis John of Courts St Vincent Limited, Justin John of Digicel, and Samantha George of the Central Water and Sewerage Authority (CWSA).

Other sponsors of the competition are C.K. Greaves, Agricultural Input Warehouse, Premier Distributors, E.Moussa and Sons, and St Vincent Brewery.

The preliminary competition will see zones D and A coming before the judges on October 8th, then on October 9th, Zones H and B will vie for a place in the finals.

Zones C and F will contest on October 10, and the following day, zone E and G will compete.

The top eight students will meet in the finals on October 19.

This year is the 15th anniversary of the competition, organized by the Rotaract Club of Kingstown.