PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten – Last Sunday The Rotary Club of St. Maarten-Mid Isle and the Rotaract Club of St. Maarten Sunrise hosted the 8th Annual Rotary/Rotaract Spelling Bee 2019 at the Belair Community Center.
The ten Semi-finalists representing seven schools, five from St. Maarten and two from Anguilla were Ashmini Persaud from The Asha Stevens Hillside Christian School, Sherine Lalwani from the St. Dominic Primary School, Jemaiah Etrenne from the St. Joseph School, from the Mac Browlia F. Maillard Campus are Jeremiah Cantave, Bhumi Dayalani and Kushaan Sharma, Pierre Pompignan from the Seventh Day Adventist School, from the Alwyn Allison Primary Mikalia Richardson and Emily Gumbs and Janselah Bruno from the Valley Primary.
The judges were introduced, the moderator this week was Amanda Bedminister, Head Judge Vice President Denise Antrobus, judges Rotarian Davy Moree and Ms. Yvette Hart, the time keeper was President Aernout Kraaijeveld and logistics tech Rotaractor Tisianna Hart. The invocation was given by Ms. Yvette Hart and the St. Maarten Song was led by Secretary Grace linger.
In the Preliminary Round the participants had to write the selected words, but this week the Semi-Finalists were required to stand in front of the audience and the panel of judges and speak into the microphone with their selected word. Each participant had twenty words to spell, this was done in two rounds, ten words were given to each participate in each round. Each correct word was worth five points.
It was a close finish ending with Sherine Lalwami from the St. Dominic Primary school and Mikalia Richardson from the Alwyn Allison School in Anguilla tying for the fifth spot in the final. They both had perfect scores from the Preliminary Round hence a spell off was needed. Both girls were given another five words to break the tie.
With the tie broken the five Finalists heading to the finals representing three schools are from the Mac Browlia F. Maillard Campus are Jeremiah Cantave and Kushaan Sharma, from the Alwyn Allison School in Anguilla are Mikalia Richardson and Emily Gumbs, and Jansela Bruno from the Valley Primary School in Anguilla.
The finals will be held at the Belair Community Centre on Sunday November 3rd, starting at 1pm. Family, friends, classmates and teachers are all invited to come out to support and cheer on the five finalists. There is also a prize for the school with the largest number of supporters. Tickets will be on sale for the raffle, the 1st raffle prize is a 50” smart TV donated by Shop n Take, and the 2nd raffle prize is a 40” smart TV donated by Music Man, which will be drawn at the completion of the finals on Sunday. The winners are required to be present at the Final Round to win!
The Rotary Club of St. Maarten-Mid Isle meets Tuesday at 7 pm at Pineapple Pete in Simpson Bay. For more information please contact rotarysxm.mi@gmail.com or visit their Facebook page Rotary Club of St. Maarten-Mid Isle.
