Toledo district student in remote Belize, wins 18th annual COCA COLA spelling bee.

 

COURTESY OF THE REPORTER NEWSPAPER.

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Toledo student wins 18th annual Coca Cola Spelling Bee

Posted by admin on Jun 14, 2012 in General | 0 comments

Dayne Guy, an 11-year-old Std V student of St. Benedict Roman Catholic School in the Toledo District, won the 18th annual Coca-Cola Spelling Bee hosted by Bowen & Bowen Ltd at the Countryside Park in Spanish Lookout, Cayo district last Friday, June 8.
It was the first time that a student from Toledo won, and Dayne took home as his prizes a brand new Dell laptop computer, with a Hewlett Packard printer, and many accessories including headphones, a 64 Gigabyte flash drive, external speakers, a multi-port USB hub and a power-supply voltage regulator – surge protector.
He also won a full tuition and book scholarship to the high school of his choice, and a desktop computer and large capacity printer for his school.
Dayne Guy, 11-year-old Karyn Cornejo of Std VI  Kids First Child Development School in the Stann Creek district and third place winner Samuel Koop of the Shepherd’s Academy in the Cayo district, were the only three students to survive the third round, when the judges went to the reserved list of words.
Koop spelt one word right to score 10pts, but amazingly stumbled on the name of a popular German dish, sauerkraut, and so claimed third prize, which included many research resource books and school supplies. Karyn and Dayne had each ranked second in their district finals, but each scored 20 pts in the third round.
In the spell-off to decide the winner, Karyn spelt “enswathe” correctly, but stumbled on another word, while Dayne lucked out with “erythrocyte” and “beryllium”. For her second prize Karyn also took home a brand new Dell laptop computer, printer, and accessories.
Six others had made it through to the third round with 30pts each at the end of the second round. They were Mara Maheia of Horizon Academy in Belize City, Randell Pate of Our Lady of Guadalupe RC School in Corozal, Angela Trujillo of Louisiana Government School in Orange Walk Town, Wilber Ibañez of St. John’s School in Cotton Tree Village, Cayo District, Mario Tiul of the Red Bank Christian School and Clementina Ojo of St. Peter Claver RC School of Punta Gorda Town, Toledo.
But they scored zero when confronted with words like gnamma, chasse, notaphily, cheongson, brachiate, eurothermal, kaiseki, cappelletti, iconnue and fiqh. If you too are mystified by these words, you’re in good company.
It’s a very esoteric list of words to be sure, as the Belize district’s top speller, Rhiki Alegria of Hummingbird Elementary, found out to his cost. He stumbled on the spelling of “esoteric”, and was eliminated at the end of the second round, along with Jadira Chacon of Libertad Methodist School, Corozal district and Jason Fortik of San Jose School, Orange Walk district.
All 12 spellers had been winners at their separate district finals, and all took home prizes. Lousiana Government School won a $1,000 first prize for the banner contest.