District’s top spellers compete in Belize City

At age fourteen it has become an educational institution. Today the Spelling Bee hit Belize City and News Five’s Marion Ali was there.

Marion Ali, Reporting
With the spelling of the word Kaiser, thirteen year old Iannie Pelayo of Wesley Upper School captured first place in the Belize District finals of Bowen and Bowen’s Annual Spelling Bee. For the standard six student it took not only months, but years to achieve this goal.

Iannie Pelayo, Winner, Bze Dist. Spelling Bee Finals
“My teacher mi done tell we deh noh wah give no like huge word, they wah give yoh small tricky words. Ih easy fi spell but ih tricky.”

Marion Ali
“So, yoh ready fi di finals now? “

Iannie Pelayo
“Yeah. I could seh, yeah.”

Marion Ali
“Weh kinda hours yoh intend fi put in now from here till that date?”

Iannie Pelayo
“I wah study all day all night, all day.”

Who also has some serious studying in his planner is second place finisher, William Michael of Holy Redeemer, who now has his eyes on the big prize.

William Michael, Second Place, Bze Dist. Spelling Bee Finals
“It was quite easy in the first two rounds but in the reserve round they were kinda hard and the numbers that I got were hard words like carapace and all those hard words but it all paid off because I studied everyday and at night before I went to sleep.”

Marion Ali
“You go on to the finals now. You face the rest ah the country and all the best spellers from throughout the country. How prepared are you for that?”

William Michael
“I am prepared but I have to study harder because the words at the nationals will be more difficult than here at districts.”

Marion Ali
“Yoh ready fi that?”

William Michael
“Yes ma’am I’m ready.”

Also ready is the sponsor of the event, Bowen and Bowen to bring the event into every corner of the country.

David Craig, Organiser, Bowen & Bowen Spelling Bee
“What we’d like to do is to take it to a level where we get complete, one hundred percent participation of all the schools. There are still some schools that kinda hold us out and don’t participate. The Ministry of Education is really trying hard to get those schools involved. We have two hundred and forty-five schools countrywide. I believe that is a big goal for us of getting one hundred percent participation of all the primary schools. No matter how remote they are, in the most remote village, we want to get them here because this is really the only truly national contest alright? And we’re very proud to be here.”

Marion Ali
“Two of the words given today, Macedonia and Seville, they are actually in the news almost on a weekly basis.”

David Craig
“Well, you know that’s interesting because some of the words that we pull are from newspapers, and certainly from watching Channel Five and Channel Seven news. So we want kids to be current and we tell them. We tell them we want them to read the newspaper and some of you guys are really gifted with great vocabularies. We hear the words coming out all the time. The news editor, the TV editors and the newspaper editors bringing out new words and we grab those words and incorporate them into our lists.”

And the National list will be tested on June sixth when students representing all six districts will compete for prizes including computers, cash, trophies, and encyclopedias. Marion Ali for News Five.

Arlenie Gilharry of Zion Park Methodist, who placed third, will also prepare herself for the finals in the event that the first or second place winners cannot attend. All participants received dictionaries, while the winners and their schools were awarded trophies as well.