Pinkerton ready to buzz at spelling bee
MAUREEN DOLAN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 13 years, 7 months AGO
COEUR d'ALENE - The final countdown to the 2011 Scripps National Spelling Bee is on, and the regional champ is ready for the challenge.
"I've been studying about one to two hours per day," said Rebekah Pinkerton, a home-schooled 11-year-old fifth-grader from Coeur d'Alene.
To get to the national competition, Rebekah first won the regional spelling bee hosted in March by North Idaho College. Rebekah's trip to compete in Washington, D.C., is sponsored by The Coeur d'Alene Press.
It's Rebekah's first trip to the nation's capital, and she is excited.
She is following in her older sister Rachel's steps. Rachel, now a junior in high school, was the regional winner in 2006, and again in 2008. Each time, Rachel went on to represent North Idaho at the national spelling bee.
"Rebekah has worked very diligently," said Rebekah's father, Dan Pinkerton. "She's been an inspiration to us and many others."
Rebekah is a runner and qualified for the National Junior Olympics cross-country team. In her free time she enjoys caring for animals on her family's ranch, horseback riding, playing the piano, singing and reading. She has four pets including three alpacas named Chanel, Reginald and Surprise, and she has a pet cat named Stockings.
The spelling bee's preliminary rounds get under way today with a written test for all 275 competitors, and then continue Wednesday with two more preliminary rounds which will be broadcast online on ESPN3.
The top-scoring 50 spellers to get through all three preliminary rounds will continue to the semifinal rounds.
The semifinals and the championship round will be broadcast live Thursday on ESPN.
The winner of the Scripps National Spelling Bee goes home with a grand prize of $30,000 cash and an engraved trophy.
Competitors must be in eighth grade or younger.
This is the ninth year The Press has sponsored the North Idaho regional spelling champ's trip to the national spelling bee.
ARTICLES BY MAUREEN DOLAN
Daylight saving time begins today
If you arrived an hour early to everywhere you went today, you might have forgotten to move your clock back. Yep, it's daylight saving time. Daylight saving time officially ends at 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 5, and returns on March 10, 2024, when clocks are moved an hour forward.
Time to 'fall back'
Daylight saving time officially ends at 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 5 and returns March 10, 2024, when the vast majority of Americans will then “spring forward” as clocks are set an hour later.
Fires, smoke continue to affect region
Smoke from the region's wildfires continued to affect air quality Monday as firefighting response teams continued to battle multiple blazes throughout North Idaho and Eastern Washington.