It’s no secret that winning writing
contests are a great way to ramp up your writing credentials.
So if you have a tendency towards outdoor writing, or a notion of one day participating in the profession, this is a contest for you. For me, it has provided a professional start in the industry, numerous valuable contacts, and endless other opportunities for growth and education.
For 21 years, the Virginia Outdoor Writer’sAssociation of Virginia (VOWA) has sponsored the Annual High School WritingCompetition. The object of the
competition is to reward high school students for excellence in communicating
their experiences in the outdoors.
Submitted essays should convey a memorable experience. Hunting, fishing, camping, hiking, boating,
wildlife watching, or other general outdoors topics are all acceptable subject
matters. Athletic events and
competitions are not eligible themes.
Public-, private-, and home-schooled students are all eligible to
participate.
Bass Pro Shops has once again agreed to
co-sponsor this contest, and will provide $150, $100, and $50 Bass Pro Shops
gift cards for the first, second, and third place winners. Also to be awarded are sponsor packages from
other outdoor retailers and supporting members of VOWA. Winners will be contacted by Mr. Terry Lewis
via email, and invited to the annual membership conference in Charlottesville,
VA on February 22, 2014, where students will read their winning entries. (For more information on how to submit, visit
www.vowa.org).
While the membership meeting may at first
seem like an unfit gathering for a high school student, I encourage any
attendant with a true interest in outdoor writing to listen intently and
participate with an open mind and confident air. The men and women that comprise this association
are truly passionate people, not “in it for the money, by any means,” as many
of them will joke. The high school
writing contest is the product of this passion and a genuine interest in the
next generation for the continuation of our unique and threatened niche in the
communications industry.
It was at this annual meeting in 2012 that
I first found myself lost and without direction. That is, until Terry Lewis found me. I shook hands with some well-known names, and
got to socializing. Several informative
seminars later, and after a few hearty meals, my wallet was bulging with
business cards.
On one was printed the name David Coffman,
Editor of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries’ e-newsletter,
The Outdoor Report, and a previously
unknown Fluvanna neighbor. It was he who
sponsored my invitation to the 2013 Mason-Dixon Outdoor Writers Association—Virginia Outdoor Writers Association joint conference, and who
later began re-running the columns I wrote for the local paper. The same relationship gave me the opportunity
to participate in the Project Healing Waters 2-Fly Tournament on the Rose River
as a photographer and media member.
Coffman introduced me to Mark Taylor, then
president of the Outdoor Writers Association of America, who soon opened a
membership category for high school students and sponsored my induction.
Another name in my wallet was Beau Beasley’s. Beau has been the source of
some valuable bits of information over the past two years, and inspired my volunteer
participation in the annual Virginia Fly Fishing Festival in Waynesboro of
which he is the Director.
Within a week of the conference I sold my
first magazine feature to Chris McCotter, editor of Woods & Waters Magazine; and I sold two more by June.
After my last feature, I was contacted by
the local paper, the Rural Virginian,
to see if I was interested in becoming an outdoor columnist. Terry Beigie, the editor, was thenceforth a
constructive, forgiving, and altogether positive blessing in the beginning
stages of a writing career that is riddled with rejection and failure. She is still a very willing wealth of
knowledge on journalism and photography; though it is with the submission of
this column that I make my last to her, as she moves on to fulfill other
opportunities.
I don’t normally “wax nostalgia,” as
McCotter would say, and on a normal day I would claim humility, but in
reflection, I believe strongly in this contest and the group that sponsors
it. I firmly believe that you will get
out of chances what you put into them; and this chance believes in you. So if you are a high school student and have
any interest in outdoor writing, I urge you to take up this opportunity. Shake a few hands, share a few stories. Submit an essay, and you might even win
something! Heck, even if you don’t win,
go anyway.□
Originally published in the Rural Virginian
Originally published in the Rural Virginian
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