The Rotary Club of Moose Jaw Wakamow is seeking teams for its first Spectacular Spelling Bee on Monday, May 8 at CJ’s Cornerstone Bar & Grill to raise money for literacy-promoting programs.
The event starts at 7 p.m. on May 8. Teams can have either 3 or 4 members and are encouraged to come up with creative names and team costumes.
Registration costs $100 per team and teams must be registered by May 1.
To register, call Debbie Sebastian at 306-694-4975 and leave a message, or email her at [email protected].
“We’ve always supported a number of literacy initiatives within the Moose Jaw area, to keep it local,” said Val Bennett, the Wakamow Rotary Club’s literacy contact. Bennett and her husband Monty, currently serving as the president of the Wakamow club, are leading the push to develop this new fundraiser.
“We need to build up the coffers so we can continue supporting the initiatives we’ve committed to, and literacy is a big part of that,” she explained. Those initiatives include the Moose Jaw Early Years Family Resource Centre, the Moose Jaw Literacy Network, and the Saskatchewan Festival of Words Kids Ink program.
“This is going to be fun, and there’ll be some extraordinary prizes,” said Monty Bennett. “I’m going to leave that as just a quiet surprise, but the first prize will definitely be very special!”
The Spectacular Spelling Bee format will bombard contestants with ‘swarms’ of 10 words at a time. The emcee will pronounce the word, define it, use it in a sentence, then pronounce it again. Teams will have 30 seconds to spell the word collaboratively on a provided white board.
Placement in the Bee will be determined by the order in which a team goes out — first team to misspell a word gets last place, for example.
Eliminated teams will have a chance to buy back in to the competition by using a Stress Bee-lief card, which must be purchased. Teams can pay $15 the first time they buy back in after a misspelling, and $30 for their second, final buy-back. They can also choose to pass on spelling a word for $25 the first time, and $50 the second and final time.
Spectators are welcome. There is no entry fee for spectating, and audience members and participants are encouraged to vote for their favourite team name and costume.
“It’s not mandatory, but we’re hoping people will have a team name and dress up for this,” Val Bennett said.
“I’d also like to say that the owners of Cornerstone, Kevin and Linda Peters, have been most accommodating and really wonderful at helping us set this up,” Monty Bennett added.
Rotary hopes to make the Spectacular Spelling Bee an annual event, although going forward it will be in January, as January 27 is National Family Literacy Day.
“We’re hoping people will take the chance to get out and do something fun and support a good cause,” Val said.
