Busy bee: big week for area spelling champ
Northwestern Ontario spelling bee champion Logan Turner is not sure what the most exciting part of the remainder of the week in his young life will be.
Will it be simply competing in the CanWest CanSpell National Spelling Bee?
Or sightseeing and shmoozing with politicians in the competition’s host city, Ottawa?
Or leaving for his family vacation to Florida in the days following the event?
“It depends if I win (the spelling bee),” 11-year-old Turner said Tuesday with a shrug.
The Grade 6 Agnew H. Johnston student, winner of The Chronicle-Journal CanWest CanSpell Regional Spelling Bee held in February, said he is coping with his busy schedule one step at a time, starting with studying for the national final which takes place Friday and Saturday in the nation’s capital.
With the help of his parents Melissa and David, Turner said he has been studying pretty hard for the bee, using the CanWest CanSpell National Spelling Bee consolidated word list and 2008 Spell Guide.
He is also studying the Scripps National Spelling Bee lists which will be useful to him when he competes in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., in May, a spot he secured when he won the regional bee.
“He has watched two spelling bee documentaries and he even set his own study schedule over the March break,” said his mom.
“He set aside about six or seven hours that week,” she said with a proud smile.
Turner’s teacher Megan Harri said he hasn’t had any trouble balancing his homework and spelling studies.
“He does a good job of getting his work done in class,” Harri said.
She said Turner has lots of support from his classmates.
“We cut every article with him in it out of the newspaper,” she said. “It’s the Wall of Logan.”
And hopefully Harri has some more space because the wall of Logan is about to grow.
The Chronicle-Journal is travelling today with Turner to Ottawa.
Publisher Colin Bruce and local CanSpell representative Susan Kew-Pattison will be joining him as well as editorial page editor Ian Pattison, who will be reporting back on Turner’s progress and posting daily stories and photos of the 22 finalists on a blog on The Chronicle-Journal website.
“We are so excited for Logan. Whether he wins or not, this trip to our nation’s capital will be a childhood memory he will cherish forever,” said Bruce.
“We hope he and his family have a wonderful time.”
Kew-Pattison said Turner is a “great kid all around.”
“We know how much Logan has been studying over the last few months and we’re so proud of him already,” she said.
