A teacher from OSCVI is going to the Olympics.
John Fearnall has won the photography category in the Globe and Mail’s Journalism Dream Contest.
That means the English and English Media teacher gets to go to the 2010 Vancouver Games as a guest photojournalist.
Fearnall says he heard about the contest a few months ago and submitted a photo essay of 5 pictures that he titled ‘Family and Sports’.
After online voting, his entry then made it into the juried round and was eventually selected as the grand winner.
Fearnall says while it’s a dream come true as a sports fan, what he’s really excited about is the opportunity this presents as a photographer.
He says his job will be to capture the fan’s perspective of the Olympics and he hopes to catch some great reactions to the hockey games.
He adds he’s excited about the chance to submit his shots to an editor and see what they think of his work.
Fearnall says he’s been into photography for about eight years and started getting really serious about it two years ago.
He says reaction to the news at OSCVI has been great and many students have told him they look forward to seeing his photos and they’re jealous of the trip.
The prize package includes round trip plane tickets to the Vancouver Olympics for two, 14 nights accommodation, event tickets, a Panasonic DMC-L10 Lumix digital SLR camera, and one thousand dollars in spending money.
Fearnall and his wife leave on February 11th and return March 1st.