February 2011

Contestants Display Impressive Vocabularies at "A Way With Words"

Sixteen contestants displayed impressive vocabularies at the fifth annual "A Way With Words" competition Sunday at the Gibsons & Area Community Centre.

Phantasmagorical, amelioration, wollastonite (a mineral) and onomatopoeia were some of the words put down as the players competed in four word games using Scrabble tiles. The event was sponsored by the Gibsons & District Library Foundation.

The teams were so evenly matched that two of the games went into overtime — to use a sports term — and once three teams were tied when the allotted time was up.

Perennial winners Donna McMahon, Brenna Boucher and Heidi Zurbrugg took the first game, "10 by 10." Other winners were Julie Skippon, Ray Boser and Marilyn Giesbrecht ("Verbs"); Joanne McNevin, Bert Reeve and Jim Batey ("Music"); and Delma Lobo, Judith Hamill and Roger Swickis ("Vowels"). All of the winners received new books.

The Gibsons & District Library Foundation was created almost nine years ago to assist the library in delivering a variety of programs and services to Sunshine Coast readers. It has donated almost $50,000 to the library since its inception, for a wide variety of projects including large print, audio and downloadable books.