5TH 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 5th 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 21st. The five-top finishers from the semi-final round will head to the final round on Sunday October 28th.
Don’t study to earn, study to learn, what you learn today is what you will become tomorrow.