Spellers of all ages came out for Maisonneuve's first Annual Spelling Bee on Saturday October 21, 2006. At 3:00 PM, in the auditorium of the Grand Bibliotheque National, twenty-one contenders were gearing up to compete in ten rounds of spelling out school-related words.

Words like "peninsula," "aubergine" and "limerick" were dictated by CBC presenter Fiona Downey. Teams consisted of one adult, one teen and one under-twelve speller. The team aspect of the bee created a sense of fun and camaraderie. Many teams included one teacher and two students, but a special shout-out goes to Mr. Rideough, our sole Principal participant!

As the contest progressed, so did the nail-biting-even a couple of teachers had difficulty with geography words in the first round such as "Barrio" and "Madagascar." The last fifteen minutes of the Bee turned into a spell-off between two teams. The word "denouement, from the "English Class" theme, turned-out to be the tie breaker.

Congratulations Mrs. Mari Dimitriou, Mina-Elizabeth Lam and Gabryelle Iaconetti, who were the crowned champions of this year's Bee.

Congratulations also to our second place team, composed of Erin George and the brother/sister duo, Holly and Geoff Allen.

 A special thanks goes out to Michel Godbout and Fiona Downey, our hosts for the event. Thank you also to CBC and Nicholas Hoare booksellers for donating such great prizes.

 This event was brought to you by Maisonneuve and CBC as part of Montreal Matters.