Zonta Club of Burlington Plans 21st Spelling Bee For Single-Parent Scholarships at Champlain College

Zonta check presentation to Champlain

The Zonta Club of Burlington will  hold its 21st Annual Community Spelling Bee on May 24, to benefit the Champlain College Single Parents Program. The Zonta Club has raised well over $110,000 for the program over the past 20 years.

In the Community Spelling Bee, teams of three spellers from corporate sponsors compete to out-spell other corporate teams. Each sponsor team donates $325 to help provide single parent students with a Champlain College education. This education helps them compete successfully in today's job market, improving the quality of their lives and the lives of their children.

Last year, sponsors of the Bee included: Coldwell Banker Hickok & Boardman Realty; Champlain College; Dr. Laura Ramirez Chiropractic; Freeman French Freeman - Architects; Friends of Literacy; Gravel and Shea PC; Grippin, Donlan & Pinkham, PLC; Wick & Maddocks Law Offices; Otter Creek Awnings, Sunrooms & Closets; Redstone Research, LLC; and Strategic Wealth Coach, LLC. Last year's winning team was Griffin, Donlan and Pinkham, LLC.

The 2017 Zonta Community Spelling Bee is open to the public and will be held at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, May 24 at Champlain College's Alumni Auditorium. To participate in the 2017 Spelling Bee, contact Barbara Ziemann via email at: BurlingtonVT@zontadistrict1.org.

About Zonta Club, Burlington: Zonta International is a worldwide service organization working to improve the legal, political, educational, economic, and professional status of women through service and advocacy. To learn more about Zonta International, visit www.zonta.org and if interested in getting involved locally, as well as internationally, contact Barbara Ziemann through BurlingtonVT@zontadistrict1.org. Find out more about the local chapter at http://zontadistrict1.org/burlington_vt/.

About the Champlain College Single Parents Program: Since 1987 Champlain College has offered a supportive atmosphere for single parents. The Single Parents Program provides exceptional advocacy and support to its participants by offering workshops, access to resources and many services designed to help students reach their educational and professional goals. Champlain recently increased the Single Parents Scholarship with the intent to meet full tuition for single parents who are financially eligible, full-time, undergraduate students from Vermont. Well over 600 Single Parent Scholars have earned their degree from Champlain since the program's inception. www.champlain.edu
Learn more about the Single Parent Program here.


Founded in 1878, Champlain College is a small, not-for-profit, private college in Burlington, Vermont, with additional campuses in Montreal, Canada, and Dublin, Ireland. Champlain offers a traditional undergraduate experience from its beautiful campus overlooking Lake Champlain and over 90 residential undergraduate and online undergraduate and graduate degree programs and certificates. Champlain's distinctive career-driven approach to higher education embodies the notion that true learning occurs when information and experience come together to create knowledge. Champlain College is included in the Princeton Review's The Best 384 Colleges: 2019 Edition. For the fourth year in a row, Champlain was named a "Most Innovative School" in the North by U.S. News & World Report's 2019 "America's Best Colleges,” and a “Best Value School” and is ranked in the top 100 “Regional Universities of the North” and in the top 25 for “Best Undergraduate Teaching.” Champlain is also featured in the Fiske Guide to Colleges for 2019 as one of the "best and most interesting schools" in the United States, Canada and Great Britain and is a 2019 College of Distinction. For more information, visit champlain.edu.