Her jewelry choice may have looked a little odd, but Hannah Cameron credits her four-leaf clover and pen necklace for carrying her to third in the national spelling bee.
A Grade 7 student at Herring Cove Junior High School, Hannah competed Sunday in the 2010 Canwest Canspell National Spelling Bee in Ottawa.
The 12-year-old from Portuguese Cove started the morning competing against 21 of the top spellers from the regional bees held this winter across the country. And slowly, throughout the day, her competition was weeded out as speller after speller got tripped up on their words.
"I just enjoyed the heck out of it," Hannah said in a telephone interview from Ottawa.
Although she put a lot of pressure on herself to win The Chronicle Herald regional final, Hannah said she went into the national competition with no expectations other than to have fun.
According to Hannah, even with a skill like spelling, luck still comes into play.
"I kept getting easy words."
And maybe that luck came from the assortment of good-luck charms her friends gave her to take to Ottawa, including the four-leaf clover and pen that Hannah made into a necklace.
She and her mother arrived Wednesday in Ottawa, where they spent the rest of the week taking in the sights of the nation�s capital.
The word that caught Hannah out was pharaoh. She transposed the a and the o, she said.
"I knew all the rest of the words," she said laughing.
Although this was her first time at a national competition, Hannah is already hoping to come back next year.
Canspell is aimed at middle-school students from grades 4 to 8.
"I�ll be allowed to come back next year," Hannah said.
According to the Canspell website, Cape Breton speller Claudine Broussard, 14, of Port Hawkesbury came in fourth. The Grade 8 student�s last word was pansit, which she spelled ponset.
Both girls won $5,000 awards as top regional spellers, as well as the trip to Ottawa to compete in the national bee.
�I just enjoyed the heck out of it.�
Hannah cameron, 12Third-place finisher in national spelling bee
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