GoodHeart | Senior Spelling Bee champion gets every word right

On Thursday, Veronica Richards-Whittaker entered the ballroom of The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston with one goal, to become the 2026 National Senior Spelling Bee Champion and take the trophy home to St Mary. She did just that, with a magnificent display that saw her spelling every word correctly.

“I came here with the intention to win,” Richards Whittaker told GoodHeart without any hint of boasting. “St Mary last won in 2022, and I said it’s time for the trophy to come home. I feel very proud of myself.”

The retired member of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) was confidently representing her Emmanuel Senior Citizens Club of Port Maria. She spelt the winning word, “inchoate”, at 3:47 p.m. to wrap up the competition early and put her main competitor, Andrew Green, in second place.

A few minutes earlier, things had come to a standstill as the judges sought to rectify an issue. Richards-Whittaker had apparently been given a word which was used earlier that day.

To bring things back on track, she was given a substitute word, “antediluvian”, which was a stroll through the park, followed by “ebullient” and then the winning word. As Gen Z would say, Richards-Whittaker ate it all up and left no crumbs.

“Right now I am feeling so good. It was a long journey to the championship ... a lot of studying, memorising ... learning new words. There was even one word with 33 letters, but I could spell it. I wondered if they were going to ask it,” Richards Whittaker said. That word was “hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia”, which Richards spelt in seconds and even gave the rather ironic meaning, a fear of long words. Fact check: our count is 35 letters; Google says it has 36.

Anyway, Richards-Whittaker admitted that there was one word at the national finals that she had to think about before spelling it correctly – “acciaccatura” – owing to the first pronunciation. However, when she asked the quiz master to repeat it, she quickly gave the correct answer.

The 2026 champion, who actually placed second at the parish level, secured a place in the national finals because the winner was unable to make it.

“The winner told her coach the same day of the finals, and I was also informed that same day, so I had time to prepare,” she said.

Richards-Whittaker recalled that from when she was growing up, she loved spelling but somehow, she didn’t get a chance to participate in any Spelling Bee competition, nor did her children. However, as a former member of the JCF, she explained that she used to record a lot of statements, which also honed her skills.

“You have to be able to spell when you are writing these statements, so I have a lot of experience. Having retired from work, I was [a] bit bored. And my friend invited me to join the Emanuel Senior Citizens Club, where I was introduced to the Spelling Bee. I told myself that I would enter this year because I know that I have the potential ... so I got the book and kept reading it,” she said.

In preparation for this competition, each day she would go over the words in the book and memorise them. Each time she got a word wrong, she would use certain clues to make that word easier to spell. Some of the words that she was not familiar with, she would Google them for pronunciation and further meanings.

“My children are very supportive. My son told me, ‘Don’t worry, you will be coming home with the trophy’. I know they are overjoyed,” Richards-Whittaker said.

And another competition is hovering on the horizon for the 2026 Spelling Bee Champion.

“They want me to be a part of the Bible quiz, but I don’t know. I haven’t started reading any of the chapters yet for that, and the competition starts in December,” she explained.

Richards-Whittaker thanked her sponsors and the National Council for Senior Citizens (NCSC) for giving her this opportunity to shine. September is celebrated as Senior Citizens Month and the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, under which the NCSC falls, is commemorating it under the theme, ‘Honouring a Golden Legacy, Shaping a Bold Future’.

This year’s observance carries added significance as the NCSC marks its 50th anniversary, celebrating five decades of dedicated service, advocacy and support for Jamaica’s senior citizens.

A national church service is scheduled for the Ocho Rios Baptist Church in St Ann on Sunday, September 6.

yasmine.peru@gleanerjm.com