- Junior Dowie2001/2 Spelling Bee top three pose with their coaches at the Hilton Kingston Hotel last Wednesday. Andrew Little (second place) with Primrose Swaby; Alicia Forrest (National Champion) with Rev. Glen Archer and Ricardo Palmer (third place) with Yvonne Miller-Wisdom.
IT WAS 9:00 a.m. and the spellers were getting ready to participate in the finals of the 43rd renewal of the Gleaner's Children's Own-sponsored Spelling Bee competition at the Hilton Kingston Hotel, New Kingston. The Bees shedded their respective school uniforms and wore white Spelling Bee T-Shirts and dark pants and skirts, while sporting their national championship medals and name tags. Seven of the 14 would make it to the semi-finals, three from that number would be placed and one would walk away with the National Championship trophy and represent Jamaica at the Scripps Howard Spelling Bee Competition tour in Washington D.C. in May, 2002
You could slice the tension.
Spell Mistress, Pat Lazarus, called the words clearly, providing meaning, origin, part of speech and any other clues spellers requested. You could hear a pin drop. The spellers, some appearing more confident than others, approached the microphone and spelt their words sometimes slowly and deliberately. With the exception of a few 'illicit' cell phones ringing and music seeping in through an open door at the back of the room, there were no distractions. Of course, those were dealt with swiftly.
FEW LAUGHS AND MINI BREAKS
There were a few laughs along the way. When the Spell Mistress called MILLIONAIRE, the speller asked for the meaning. "A very rich person," she replied, "I wish I was." That was such an ice-breaker.
Audience support was crucial! Several students from the various schools were there, parents, teachers and friends turned up.
Mini-breaks between rounds and the lunch break gave spellers opportunities to convene with their coaches, whether for pep talks or just plain old reassurance. There were only tears of joy at this competition. Alicia Forrest, of Ardenne High, who emerged the National Champion, let them flow.
The competition ended at approximately 4:45 p.m. The elated winners, their teachers and all the spellers received gifts from various organisations which contributed to the competition. Then it was on to dinner. A very informal affair. Governor-General, Sir Howard Cooke, and Senator Burchell Whiteman, Minister of Education, Youth & Culture, were guests of honour. Managing director of the Gleaner Company, Oliver Clarke, congratulated the winners whom he said were all champions. He pointed to the lessons of discipline to be learnt from their success and called Alicia's success 'a time for celebration'. He urged the audience of teachers, parents and specially invited guests to see the message of discipline in the story of the 1965 winner from the parish of Manchester who decided she wanted to enter the competition, took the initiative to find a coach and emerged All Island Champion. Amorelle Morrison defined her goal and was disciplined enough to carry it through, he said.
GIFTS AND PRIZES
More gifts and special prizes were handed out. Sir Howard Cooke presented the trophies to the top three spellers. Other prizes were handed out by representatives of Air Jamaica, Microsoft and Singer. Senator Whiteman presented the Edwin Allen Cup to Alicia for placing first place in the comprehension .
Victoria Mutual Building Society (VMBS) earlier presented cheques for the Champion Girl in each parish and special prizes to the All-Island champion, and Champion Teacher.
KARAOKE SESSION
The last word was spelt, champion named, the prizes were handed out, but the day did not end there. The spellers could now wind down and have fun. The Karaoke session started with Hope McMillan, Gleaner's public relations and marketing manager and Kerline Graham, marketing manager at Singer. Hope was ready to sing the original version until she was hit with the remake from Shaggy! Then, her DJ skills, or lack, came to life. One thing for sure, they were entertaining.
The children formed various groups and did their performances. 1999 All-Island champion, Romell Newby & the I-Twos did Backstreet Boys' 'I Want It That Way'. But, one can imagine that the audience didn't, with Romell's 'tone-deaf' off-key singing the girls were thrown off as well. But it was funny! Then a large group which called itself 'Outta Sync' performed 'N Sync's 'Bye, Bye, Bye' complete with the dance.
FRIENDSHIPS FORMED
The competitors who had met only for a day before the competition seemed like long-time friends. No one could tell that they weren't in the same class at the same school. It was refreshing to see them all having a good time after competing. They were happy knowing that they were all winners! The dinner was child-friendly. A buffet with chicken, hot-dogs, lasagna, and many of the things that children like was available to them.
