MERRIAM-WEBSTER HONORS DANVILLE SPELLING CHAMP

National Spelling Bee champion Evan O’Dorney donates prize package from Merriam-Webster to educational institutions in San Francisco Bay Area

SPRINGFIELD, MA., June, 2007—Merriam-Webster, America’s leading English language reference publisher, will award a golden anniversary prize package commemorating the company’s 50-year partnership with the Scripps National Spelling Bee to this year’s champion Evan O’Dorney of Danville, California. As winner of the 80th annual competition held in Washington, D.C. last month, 13 year-old O’Dorney will receive a $2,500 U.S. savings bond, a complementary one-year subscription to the company’s premium Web site, Merriam-Webster Unabridged, and a complete reference library of Merriam-Webster products. As a special anniversary bonus, the Danville teenager will also receive a check for $5,000 and a collection of 50 Merriam-Webster titles to be donated to the school, public library, or educational institution of his choice.

“Evan has been enrolled in the Home Study program at Venture School for the past nine years,” said Jennifer O’Dorney, the champion’s mother. “We are pleased to contribute these fifty reference books, knowing that they will enhance the education of many generations to come.”

As per the O’Dorney family’s wishes, the Bay area recipient of the $5,000 check will remain undisclosed until later this year, when Evan will make a surprise presentation.

Merriam-Webster has been playing a major supporting role in the Scripps National Spelling Bee for many years—50, to be exact—donating both professional expertise and prizes on local and national levels. The company shipped a copy of its best-selling Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate® Dictionary, Eleventh Edition to each of the first runners-up of the 2007 Bee’s regional program. To help Evan and the other 286 regional champions prepare for the tough competition of the national finals, each was awarded a copy of Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged—the official reference of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and the final authority for the spelling of words in the national finals.

For more information about Merriam-Webster, Inc., or about the 2007 Scripps National Spelling Bee, visit Merriam-Webster OnLine at www.Merriam-Webster.com.