Children must be obedient - Spelling Bee boss
The Executive Director of Scripps National Spelling Bee, Ms Paige Kimble, has advised children to study, persevere and listen to their parents and teachers.
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Addressing the 10th National Spelling Bee Competition and the 10th anniversary of the existence of spelling bee in Ghana in Accra last Saturday, Ms Kimble said if children learnt how to use words, it would positively impact on their lives and added that participating in the spelling bee competition would give children the vocabulary they needed to listen, speak, read and write in pursuit of their dreams.
She encouraged them and said: “When you stumble, get up. When you achieve, celebrate and give thanks no matter what, remember the power of words to define the best in you and others.’’
The competition
The competition which had four stages, with each stage eliminating the spellers who could not spell correctly, brought together 197 students from various schools across the country, after an intensive training, after which the final competitors were selected to make it to the national stage.
After a fierce battle between the 197 spelling competitors in all the rounds, the number came down to the final 10 at the fourth round and after the final round, 13-year-old Lily Ama Tugbah of Solidarity International School was the only competitor on the stage but she was not declared the winner until she had to spell the “Winner’s” word to qualify her as the champion. The word “Baculiform” was spelt correctly by Miss Tugbah and she was declared the champion of the competition.
The winners
To fight for the second and third positions, nine of the finalists from the final 10 were brought back on stage to spell some words and at the end, Miss Gabriella Ellis of Delhi Public School placed second and Miss Ewoenam Afetsi from SOS Herman Gmeinner took the third place.
Make Ghana proud
Ms Kimble congratulated and wished the contestants who had made it to the national level success and told them that the champion would represent Ghana at the Scripps Spelling Bee in the United States of America (USA), and urged them to battle it out with their competitors.
She cited an example using the winner of last year’s competition, saying “In 2016, Ghana’s Afuah Ansah earned the second highest preliminaries score among a field of more than 280 competitors in the USA, as such she received a standing ovation in Washington DC and was featured on ESPN, entertainment and sports programming networks.”
The prizes
For their prizes, each contestant, including those who could not make it to the final stage, got a certificate of participation, a medal and souvenirs from the sponsors.
The overall champion, Miss Tugbah, was given a champions cup, GH¢10,000 Ecobank Junior Saver account, GH¢10,000 educational scholarship fund from Indomie, an all-expense-paid trip to the USA to represent Ghana at the 90th Scripps National Spelling Bee, as well as souvenirs from other sponsors.
Appreciation
In an interview with the Daily Graphic, Miss Tugbah said she was grateful to God, her family and especially her coach for the hard work and dedication he showed towards the competition.