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What a wonderful Awards Night we all had at the Ralph Thornton Centre last Friday night! It was a lovely ending to an exciting time for all of us--the first Adult ESL Spelling Competition on a Toronto-wide basis. The beautiful, spacious room on the second floor of the Centre--a historical building in the east end of Toronto--was decorated with the many pictures of the contestants and of scenes at the competition taken by Susie Chu and with banners created by professional graphic designer Bette Forester and featuring several of the words from the spelling lists used in the competition. From all over Toronto, contestants, winners, coaches, family and friends, and, of course, teachers came to help us celebrate and to give us the chance to say thank you!
Music was provided by Jones Han, including a rousing musical finale of "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You," which had everyone dancing, clapping and singing.
Lots of good food was provided by the members of the Committee, as well as gourmet platters donated by The Upper Crust and Bonjour Brioche, both on Queen Street East, and by Aji Sai on the Danforth.
The door prizes--gift bags donated by Starbucks at Jones and Danforth--were a big hit too, as were the elegant pens and the subscription gift certificates donated by the Toronto Star.
Pamela Gunn, Manager of Educational Sales in the Consumer Marketing Division at the Toronto Star, was present to hand out Certificates of Participation to all the Contestants, as well as Certificates of Recognition to the teachers of the many ESL and LINC classes who had participated in the competition.
And, of course, the Prize Winners all received their Awards: Grigori Drobot and Maria Teresa Arcos, First Prize Winners; Cindy Gian and Iraci Domingos, Second Prize Winners; and Berhane Gezahagne Amare and Zinnat Talukder, Third Prize Winners.
An additional highlight of the evening was the documentary video produced by Caine Chow of Azure Production, Inc. We plan to make copies of the video available shortly.
On the morning of the Awards Night, Berhane and his instructor Munni Subhani, were interviewed on CBC's Metro Morning, and an article on the competition will be published in the next edition of Newcomer Magazine--make sure you get your copy!
What's Next?
Now it's time for the Committee to review the past competition. We will be in touch with all the teachers and classes for feedback and are already planning the next competition in the fall of 2008. Please check here for upcoming details and for information where pictures from the competition and the documentary video can be viewed.
ESL SPELL 2008
The Second Adult ESL Spelling Competition is coming!
This year we will have an expanded format to give more Adult ESL Learners a chance to participate and win prizes. For more information about this year's Spelling Bee Competition, please click here.
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