Donald Teuma-Castelletti
QUYON April 14-15, 2018
Young spelling aficionados from across the Municipality of Pontiac filled the Quyon Library over the weekend, testing their wits in a new competition for the area.
In the first Pontiac Spelling Bee, children competed across six age divisions in a hard-fought, and no doubt pressure-filled, contest, spreading over the weekend and featuring both official languages.
“With the young ones we had a really good turnout,” said librarian and event organizer Suzanne Lyndon.
Hosting the spelling bee in response to what they see as an area lacking confidence amongst the younger crowd, Lyndon and fellow librarian Glenda Nitschke each had their language preference to judge. While Lyndon headed up the English competitions on Saturday, Nitschke took care of Sunday’s French focus.
But just because the librarians had their preferred language, many children felt plenty confident to tackle the competition in both languages.
With three divisions running each day – at 10:30 a.m. for grades 1 and 2, 1:00 p.m. for grades 3 and 4, and 3:30 p.m. for grades 5 and 6 – plenty of young vocabularies were recited before medals were distributed.

Saturday’s winners included: Lily Mayhew and runner-up Jacob Illingworth for the grades 1 and 2; José-Eduardo Munoz de Castro and runner-up Callum Maloney for the grades 3 and 4; and Maddy Beland, with runner-up Madi Reen for the oldest crowd.
Sunday’s champs included: Nathan Hedible, narrowly beating out his older sister, Anaïs Hedible, as the two competed into the grade six vocabulary, in the youngest age group; June Keon and runner-up José-Eduardo Munoz de Castro in grades 3 and 4; and Sarena Keon, with runner-up Maxime Sarault for the oldest crowd.
All of the first-place participants received a medal, while both final finishers were awarded with a board game.
Lyndon described a proud moment in hosting the spelling bee was when the kids received their medals and their faces would light up.
“It was a very positive experience,” said Lyndon. “I think, for most of the children, they will remember today positively.”
Of course, it wasn’t easy to get most of the children up to the podium, and Lyndon wanted to acknowledge the bravery of all competitors.
“A lot of kids were terrified of coming here,” said Lyndon, of the competitors. “They had no confidence in their spelling.”
As well, she said the spelling bee would have had a tough go if it weren’t for the help and generosity of many in the community. From teachers at the local elementary schools to employees from the municipality, as well as a business owner out of Shawville.
“We needed a platform because the kids are short,” said Lyndon, of preparing for the competition. “I decided I’d build one myself but didn’t have the materials.”
Upon heading to Home Hardware, she ended up speaking with employee Ron Hodgins, who wanted to make things a bit easier for the Quyon Library’s efforts.
“I told Ronnie about what we were doing, and he donated all of the wood,” said Lyndon. “He said he wanted to support our spelling bee.”