KC student Gifton Wright is on the roster for the Scripps National Spelling Bee championship in the Washington, DC area. The competition gets underway May 29th, 2012. He is speller number 89.
As Jamaica’s Champion speller Gifton will join 277 other spellers from the United States, the Bahamas, Canada, China, Ghana, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea.
At stake is a grand prize of US$30,000 in cash, plus: an engraved trophy; a $2,500 U.S. savings bond; a complete reference library; a $5,000 scholarship; reference works, including the Final Print Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica; a lifetime membership to Britannica Online Premium and a Nook Color tablet.
The competition will be televised by live on ESPN. The Schedule is as follows:
Preliminaries:
Wednesday, May 30, 8:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. EDT
Live on ESPN3.com
Semifinals
Thursday, May 31, 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. EDT
Live on ESPN2
Championship Finals
Thursday, May 31, 8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m. EDT
Live on ESPN
For more information about the National Spelling Bee go to: http://public.spellingbee.com/public/spellers/2012/89