Franklin Congratulates Tom Winter
Sydney, Australia. June 4, 2010 Franklin Electronic Publishers congratulates Tom Winter from Burnside High School in New Zealand, for making the semi-final of the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington DC.
“Everyone at the Spelling Bee is celebrating Tom’s achievement. More than 11 million students participate in the competition so for Tom to be one of the top 48 spellers is an extraordinary achievement. We are all aware that he has the additional obstacles of understanding both our accents and our American-English spelling,” said Paige Kimble, Director of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
Tom Winter is this year's New Zealand National Spelling Bee winner, sponsored by Franklin Electronic Publishers. Franklin also sponsors USA's Scripps National Spelling Bee.
“I am so pleased to have made it this far. I know that Mum and Dad helped me with some last minute cramming. Dad called the night before the written test and said I had to know the word, pusillanimous and Mum tested me on agape and incredibly those two words were in the written test and I really think they were what got me over the line. Dad will be thrilled to think he played a part,” said Tom.
After the announcement George Thampy, a speller in the documentary, Spellbound, and the Scripps winner in 2000, came up specially to congratulate Tom.
Tom is the sixth New Zealand speller to represent New Zealand at the Scripps National Spelling Bee and the second to make it through to the semi-finals. The other was Kate Weir, Linwood College, Christchurch, in 2007.
Penny says she really wants to thank the Paparoa Street School teachers especially Mrs Fletcher. “We are thrilled to have got the chance to come to the competition and this is next stage is the cherry on the icing on the cake.”
Franklin's sponsorship is being provided as part of an overall commitment to improving literacy outcomes for all young people. It complements Franklin's support in Australia for National Literacy & Numeracy Week (NLNW), MS Readathon, The Premier's Spelling Bee, Spellmasters and Franklin Scholarships.
Tom will compete in the Scripps National Spelling Bee semi-finals US time 5.30pm Thursday - 9.30am Friday 4 June New Zealand time. The semi-final will screen live on ESPN at 10am-1pm US time or 2-5am NZ time on SKY channel 3.
About Franklin
Franklin Electronic Publishers Incorporated is a world leader in electronic handheld information, having sold approximately 42,000,000 electronic books. Current titles available directly or through partners number more than 116,000 in sixteen languages under license from world class publishers, such as Merriam-Webster, Oxford University Press, Larousse, Langenscheidt, PONS and HarperCollins, focused in four areas: Language Expansion, Language Learning, Reading Enhancement and Writing Enhancement. The Company also licenses its underlying technology to an array of partners including Adobe and Sun Microsystems. Franklin’s products are available at 49,000 retail outlets worldwide, through catalogues and online at http://www.franklin.com/au.
04 June 2010
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