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Category Corporate Date 6/1/2006 |
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Canadian Student Goes the Distance at International Spelling Competition
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| CanWest CanSpell Champ Finola Hackett battles to the final two at Scripps National Spelling Bee |
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Washington: Canadian speller Finola Hackett of Tofield, Alberta has seen the summit of the spelling world as the runner-up of the 79th annual Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington D.C. Finola who started out as one of 275 student spellers at the prestigious competition, was one of two remaining spellers when she was tripped up by “weltschmerz” (a form of depression). The winner, Katharine Close of New Jersey, was making her fifth trip to the finals.
Finola, representing The Edmonton Journal, was one of 13 finalists competing in front of a live prime time television audience in Canada on the CH television stations, across the United States, and around the world. Finola, the two time CanWest CanSpell Canadian spelling champion, was among fourteen Canadian spellers who qualified for the Scripps National Spelling Bee held in Washington, D.C. They were among a group of 275 students from grades 4 through 8, who come from around the English speaking world to compete.
Along with Finola, Jaclyn Chang representing The Calgary Herald, Anqi Dong of Saskatoon, representing The Star Phoenix, and Leslie Newcombe of Toronto, representing the National Post made it to the tense final rounds of the Scripps competition. Jaclyn Chang advanced all the way to the seventh round, and finished tied for 14th after tripping up on the word, "gigerium" (the muscular stomach, or gizzard, of a bird).
“The achievement of Finola and all the Canadian spellers in Washington is a point of pride for CanWest and all of our employees who have helped create the CanWest CanSpell national spelling program,” said David Asper, Executive Vice President of CanWest Global Communications Corp. and Chairman of the National Post. “On behalf of all the 10,000 plus CanWest employees in Canada and the 160,000 Canadian students who started out in the school level competitions at the beginning of the year, we offer our congratulations to Finola and the 13 other Canadian spellers who represented our Company and our country with such poise and grace.”
The Scripps National Spelling Bee is the largest and most prestigious spelling competition in the world. It is estimated that more than 10 million students in the United States, Canada, and other countries compete at school-level bees hoping to get to the final rounds in Washington.
About CanWest CanSpell
As part of a larger initiative to improve literacy rates across Canada, CanWest Global Communications Corp. is pleased to present the CanSpell initiative which provides Canadian children with an exciting opportunity to improve their spelling skills and expand their vocabularies. The annual CanWest CanSpell National Spelling Bee is designed to give students a chance to challenge themselves and compete with their peers as they strive to become more proficient spellers. For more information on CanWest CanSpell visit the website at www.canspell.com. CanWest CanSpell is strongly supported by Saturn RELAY and aircanada.com.
About CanWest Global Communications Corp.
CanWest Global Communications Corp. (www.canwestglobal.com), an international media company listed on the TSX (CGS and CGS.A) and NYSE (CWG), is Canada’s largest media company. CanWest is Canada’s largest publisher of daily newspapers, and owns, operates and/or holds substantial interests in free-to-air and subscription-based television networks, out-of-home advertising, web sites, and radio stations and networks in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
For further information, please contact:
Bruce Leslie,
Vice President, Community & Public Relations
CanWest Global Communications Corp.
Tel:
Cell:
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