The 2009 Scripps National Spelling Bee will mark several milestones: the largest field of competitors, an additional opportunity to spell onstage, and a new use of technology.
When Bee Week kicks off Sunday, May 24, the Scripps National Spelling Bee will welcome 293 spelling champions to the 82nd Scripps National Spelling Bee – and will begin tweeting on www.twitter.com/scrippsbee.
Twitter is just one of the ways to keep up to date on the competition. Nationwide, viewers can tune into the Bee’s live broadcasts:
Bee Week
The Scripps National Spelling Bee is the culmination of months – and often years – of preparation. Thirty percent of the spellers have competed in the Bee previously or have family members who have competed in the Bee. All of the spellers have qualified to compete in the Bee by winning locally sponsored spelling bees in their home communities.
The first day of competition for the Bee begins Tuesday, May 26, at the Grand Hyatt Washington. For the second year the Bee will utilize a 50-word computerized test for Round One of the Preliminaries.
New this year, each speller will have the opportunity to spell onstage twice during the preliminaries on Wednesday, May 27. Previously, spellers had only one opportunity to spell onstage during the Preliminaries. For 2009, the spellers with the best results in the Preliminaries will qualify for the Semifinals on Thursday, May 28.
Facts about the spellers:
Additional information about the 2009 Scripps National Spelling Bee can be found online at www.spellingbee.com.
About the Scripps National Spelling Bee
The Scripps National Spelling Bee is the nation’s largest and longest-running educational promotion, administered on a not-for-profit basis by The E.W. Scripps Company and 287 local spelling bee sponsors in the United States, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Department of Defense Schools in Europe; also, the Bahamas, Canada, China, Ghana, Jamaica, New Zealand, and South Korea. The purpose of the Scripps National Spelling Bee is to help students improve spelling, increase their vocabularies, learn concepts and develop correct English usage that will help them all of their lives.
About Scripps
The E.W. Scripps Company (NYSE: SSP) is a diverse, 130-year-old media enterprise with interests in television stations, newspapers, local news and information Web sites, and licensing and syndication. The company’s portfolio of locally focused media properties includes: 10 TV stations (six ABC affiliates, three NBC affiliates and one independent); daily and community newspapers in 14 markets and the Washington, D.C.-based Scripps Media Center, home of the Scripps Howard News Service; and United Media, the licensor and syndicator of Peanuts, Dilbert and approximately 150 other features and comics. For a full listing of Scripps media companies and their associated Web sites, visit https://www.scripps.com/.