Congratulations to Gifton Wright who has captured the Gleaner's Childrens Own Spelling Bee championship for 2011-2012. He becomes the first KC student to win the contest.
Gifton is one of eight children and hails from Tawes Meadows in Spanish Town. He was coached by the veteran spelling coach, Reverend Glen Archer. He was the Kingston Champion two years in a row and previously placed 4th in the National competition.
As winner of the Gleaner's competition, Gifton has earned a spot in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, DC in June, 2012.
The Scripps Spelling Bee is US National Competition. Over the years, the competition has been opened to contestants from Canada, Mexico, Jamaica, New Zealand, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Ghana, Germany, South Korea, and the Bahamas.
The Scripp's grand prize is US$30,000, an engraved trophy, a $2,500 savings bond, a reference library from Merriam-Webster, $2,600 in reference works and a lifetime membership to Britannica Online Premium from Encyclopædia Britannica, $5,000 cash prize from the Sigma Phi Epsilon Educational Foundation, and an online course and a Nook eReader from K12 Inc.
In 1998, Jamaica's Jody-Anne Maxwell made history by becoming the first contestant from outside the US to win the competition.