On Sunday Anguilla shone at 5^th Scotiabank Rotary-Rotaract Spelling Bee 2018.  The five finalists headed to The Belair Community Center to go head to head to determine the winner of the final round of the 5^th Scotiabank Rotary-Rotaract Spelling Bee 2018 were from St. Maarten Nasya Gayle - MAC John A. Gumbs Campus, Mikage Dorcelus - Ruby Labega Primary School, Sameer Chatani – Seventh Day Adventist School, and from the Anguilla Schools Zakkai Lake and Ayana Carty. These three girls and two boys were well supported by a large crowd of family, friends, classmates and teachers.

 

The 5thh Scotiabank Rotary-Rotaract Spelling Bee 2018 was held in three consecutive rounds. The first round, the Preliminary Round had 29 participants from 14 schools, in this round the children had to spell the selected 20 words on paper.  The top ten highest scorers from the Preliminary Round went onto the Semi- Finals.  The ten Semi-Finalists from eight schools had to spell out their words into a microphone in front of the judges and audience. The top five highest scorers from the Semi-Finals went headed onto the final round. All twenty-nine participants of the 5^th Scotiabank Rotary- Rotaract Spelling Bee 2018 represented their respective schools admirably.

 

It was a very close finish for all five participants in the final round and there was a tie for third place. For the two girls with the third place tie, their scores from the preliminary and Semi-Final rounds were calculated which broke the tie by just one point. In first place came Ayana Carty from Anguilla she won the first place trophy and an APPLE IMAC 21.5” desk top computer, in second place came Zakkai Lake also from Anguilla, who received the second place trophy and an APPLE MacBook Air 13.3 “, In third place came Mikage Dorcelus from Ruby Labega Primary School, she received the third place trophy and a IPAD 5th Generation 9.7”. In fourth place came Nasya Gayle from MAC John A. Gumbs Campus, who went home with a Samsung Galaxy J7 Neo cellphone. Fifth place went to Sameer Chatani from Seventh Day Adventist School who got to take home a JBL Bluetooth Over-Ear Headphone and a fidget spinner.

 

The Anguilla schools won a Printer for being the most supportive school.  Also in attendance to support the five finalist were Ms. Selma Baker and other representatives of the main sponsor Scotiabank, The Honorable Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, Minister Wycliffe Smith who spoke with the participants before the start of the final and The Assistant District Governor for District 7020 Marcellia Henry. The Anguilla schools were also awarded a DELL Optiplex 3020 computer and an AOC. 1905 SWD 19” class screen led-lit computer monitor as the prize for the winning school.  Scotiabank presented all 29 participants with backpacks filled with goodies.

 

The 40” TV donated by Shop and Take was also raffled.

 

The five finalists were asked for their comments on the Spelling Bee, and these ranged from, “it was good;” “it was fun;” “it was a lot of words;” “they learnt many new words;” and “there was a lot of studying that had to be done”

 

Mid Isle would like to take this opportunity to thank Scotiabank the main sponsor of the 5^th Scotiabank Rotary-Rotaract Spelling Bee 2018 along with gold sponsor Guardian Group Fatum and the many other sponsors without whose help we could not have had a successful Spelling Bee.

5^TH Scotiabank Rotary-Rotaract Spelling Bee 2018 Kicked off on Sunday

Twenty-nine nervous and eager participants from sixteen schools were ready for the start of the preliminaries of the 5^th Scotiabank Rotary-Rotaract Spelling Bee 2018 on Sunday at the Belair Community Center.

Before the start of the Spelling Bee the St. Maarten Song was sung by Chantoni Da Cunha and ???. followed by speeches from the Honorable Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sports the Honorable Minister Wycliffe Smith who stressed that the children should READ, READ, READ to advance in their spelling. Assistant District Governor Marcellia Henry emphasized Rotary’s focus world wide on basic education and literature. The representative from Scotiabank Ms. Imelda Joseph ????President of The Rotary Club of St. Maarten Denise Antrobus gave the audience some feed back of what the participants thought of the four tutorials held this year at the University of St. Martin. She also thanked the sponsors for their support of the Spelling Bee which without them this would not have been possible. Special thanks went out to the main sponsor Scotiabank and chairlady service projects director Grace Linger for organizing this event.  President of The Rotaract Club of St. Maarten Sunrise Lerissa Rey made sure all the participants were ready. All the speakers let the participants know that they were all already winners by being there and ready to compete.

The judges were introduced, the moderator Rhodda Arrindell, head judge President Denise Antrobus, judges Rotarian Davy Moree and Rotarian Reena Manek, logistics tech Theodore ??? and time keeper Rotarian Aernout Kraajeveld.

Finally, an explanation of the rules was given to the participants, who were anxiously waiting to start. For the preliminary round the participants had to write twenty words. The word was read out, given in a sentence and read out again, they had thirty seconds to write the word on the sheet provided.

The Top ten finishers representing six schools were Yaashoda Sanchara from Asha Stevens Hillside Christian School, Nasya gayle from MAC School – Rev. john A. Gumbs Campus, Nihal Chugani from St. Dominic Primary School, Khushi Soneji from Mac School – Browlia f. Maillard Campus, Sameer Chatani from St. Maarten Seventh Day Adventist School, Mikage Dorecelus from Ruby Labega Primary School, and from the Anguilla Schools. Tamara Hall-Sampson, Jayda Adams, Zakkai Lake and Ayana Carty. These top ten finishers are now headed for the semi-final round being held on Sunday October 21^st. The five-top finishers from the semi-final round will head to the final round on Sunday October 28^th.

Don’t study to earn, study to learn, what you learn today is what you will become tomorrow.

 The Andy and Elmer literacy project has been a success in St. Maarten, Rotary Club of St. Maarten-Mid Isle announced on Monday in a statement.

“The focus of Rotary for the month of September was basic education and literacy. The Rotary Club of St. Maarten-Mid Isle have for the first time on St. Maarten introduced the Andy and Elmer Literacy Project. This was a pilot project that has been well received with young students.

“Andy and Elmer' s Apple Dumpling Adventure is a delightful story of a young entrepreneur named Andy, who with the help of a mysterious voice providing guidance and support, learns the value of truthfulness, fairness, goodwill and partnership that benefit everyone involved. 

“This wonderful book was designed to teach the four-way test to children in the 1st to 4th grades. It is a direct implication on Rotary's focus on future generations, being a friend of education and an example to the youth.

“The Andy and Elmer activity books were introduced to Players Development and children at the Philipsburg Library, each child was given an activity book and a 4 Way Test bookmark. 

“We read the book individually with each child, they enjoyed the story and enjoyed the activities in the book which included a crossword, word search, dot to dot and more, all pictures in the book the children were able to color.

“The children at Players Development were thrilled to learn the 4 Way Test as they have just been approved to set up a Rotary Early Act Club.”