National Spelling Bee
| Scripps National Spelling Bee | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Genre | Spelling bee |
| Frequency | Annual (late May or early June) |
| Location(s) | Washington, D.C. area |
| Inaugurated | 1925 |
| Patron(s) | The E. W. Scripps Company |
| Website | |
| www.spellingbee.com | |
The Scripps National Spelling Bee (formerly the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee and commonly called the National Spelling Bee) is an annual spelling bee held in the United States. The bee is run on a not-for-profit basis by The E. W. Scripps Company and is held at a hotel or convention center in Washington, D.C. during the week following Memorial Day weekend. Since 2011, it has been held at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center hotel in National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, just outside Washington D.C. It was previously held at the Grand Hyatt Washington in Washington D.C. from 1996 to 2010.
Although most of its participants are from the U.S., students from countries such as The Bahamas, Canada, the People's Republic of China, Ghana, Japan, Jamaica, Mexico, and New Zealand have also competed in recent years. Historically, the competition has been open to, and remains open to, the winners of sponsored regional spelling bees in the U.S. (including territories such as Guam, American Samoa, the Navajo Nation, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, along with overseas military bases in Germany and South Korea). Participants from countries other than the U.S. must be regional spelling-bee winners as well.
Contest participants cannot be older than fourteen as of August 31 of the year before the competition; nor can they be past the eighth grade as of February 1 of that year's competition. Previous winners are also ineligible to compete.
Since 1994, the cable-television channel ESPN has televised the later rounds of the bee; since 2006, earlier rounds have aired on ESPN during the day, and the Championship Finals have aired in the evening on ESPN.
The National Spelling Bee was formed in 1925 as a consolidation of numerous local spelling bees, organized by The Courier-Journal in Louisville. Frank Neuhauser won the first National Spelling Bee held that year, by successfully spelling "gladiolus". the spelling bee has been held every year except for 1943–1945 due to World War II. Later, the E.W. Scripps Company acquired the rights to the program. The bee is held in late May and/or early June of each year. It is open to students who have not yet completed the eighth grade, reached their 15th birthday, nor won a previous National Spelling Bee. Its goal is educational: not only to encourage children to perfect the art of spelling, but also to help enlarge their vocabularies and widen their knowledge of the English language.
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