Miranda Furtado is in B.C. for the Ski and Snowboard Festival.
photo by holly west
Life Reporter
Humber fashion arts student, Miranda Furtado, beat 50 other applicants to be the new face of Whistler’s Ski and Snowboard Festival.
The Face of the Festival campaign was posted on the World Ski and Snowboard site to recruit an online personality who would embody the culture and excitement of the event, said Lisa Richardson, director of communications.
The tenth annual week-long celebration ends this Sunday with musical performances, celebrities in the snowboard world and a fashion show.
“We had 50 applicants post videos on YouTube and attend live auditions,” Richardson said. “We gave them a week to galvanize support for their bid by getting votes for their videos.”
Furtado’s entry got her a free round-trip flight to Vancouver, ten-day accommodations in Whistler and plenty of screen time meeting and talking with big names in snowboarding, such as U.S. Olympic silver medallist Danny Kass.
Richardson said previous years had many different hosts posting highlights of the festival online, but no specific person to represent the look and feel of the various events.
Cat Channon, media manager of the festival, was part of the team that whittled down the list of entrants to the final five.
“We wanted someone who made us smile and would make us recall all the best moments of the festival,” she said.
“When I heard about the contest on the site, I was like, ‘yeah I get to go back to my home away from home,’ ” said Furtado, 23. “I’ve been involved in a lot of television and broadcast stuff so when I saw that I could interview rock stars and snowboarders as well as attend the fashion show and get VIP access to everything I figured I had nothing to lose.”
Furtado has been involved in the ski and snowboard community for years as an instructor and interned for Snowboarding Canada magazine.
The contest “will open up doors for me because the videos will be posted daily on dose.ca,” she said.