Celebrating Community and Literacy at
ONE TO ONE’s 2026 Spelling Bee Challenge
For the first time in person since 2019, spellers gathered — pencils at the ready — for ONE TO ONE Literacy’s 16th Spelling Bee Challenge.
This lunchtime event at beautiful VanDusen Botanical Garden was full of community, camaraderie, and a little bit of healthy competition, all in support of our children’s literacy programs.
Led by our host, Ashley Spires, and quizmaster Amanda Adams, the energy inside the room was electric. We were thrilled to be supported by our media sponsor, Daily Hive, and our Worker Bee: Community Sponsor, Geotab, as teams competed to showcase their orthographic skills in a quest for spelling supremacy.
This year’s teams: The Originals, Bygone Bees, Hive Got a Feeling, Queen Bees, Spelchek, and Geotabulous tackled three rounds of challenging words (like axolotl and Micropachycephalosaurus) in an attempt to secure the coveted Spelling Bee trophy and cement their place in history.
Beyond the tricky words, the afternoon was punctuated by deeply moving stories of impact, reminding everyone exactly why we gathered. Spellers heard from several parents in our program, including Sammie Jo Rumbaua, who shared the story of her family’s involvement in our virtual program and highlighted not only her son’s reading progress but also talked about the unique opportunity that our program presents for children to create meaningful connections across generations.
There were laughs and big smiles at the photobooth courtesy of Magik Moments and everyone had the chance to bid on our silent auction items, generously donated by artists and vendors from across the Lower Mainland and beyond.
As the event drew to a close, we were thrilled to crown Spelchek as our 2026 champions and proud to announce that our ticket sales, sponsorships, in-room fundraising, silent auction bids, and raffle ticket sales combined to bring our fundraising total to over $17,000! This impressive total put us just shy of our $18,000 goal.
We are grateful to everyone who was able to join us on June 11 or make a contribution in support of our reading programs, allowing ONE TO ONE to to work to close the literacy gap in British Columbia.
Please note that while the Bee has wrapped until 2027, our WestJet raffle is still flying high! Tickets remain on sale through June 30, giving you a chance to win a roundtrip flight for two to any regularly scheduled WestJet destination. If you couldn’t “bee” there in person, grabbing a raffle ticket (or two) is a fantastic way to show your commitment to children’s literacy.
Enter the WestJet raffle!Thanks again to everyone who made this year’s Bee so unforgettable. We can’t wait to see you next year. Your ongoing support ensures that we can continue to provide students the one-on-one tutoring necessary to boost their literacy skills and reading confidence. This year’s event was a beautiful reminder that sometimes words truly can make a difference.
You can visit our website here to make a post-event gift in support of young readers in B.C.
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