Microsoft announces Office Winter Games contest winners

Spring Valley Campus student blogger Dylan Derryberry wins a trip to the 2010 Winter Games


Dylan Derryberry
Dylan Derryberry

REDMOND, Wash., Jan. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Bloggers Amber Borowski Johnson and Dylan Derryberry are the winners of the Microsoft Corp.-sponsored Office Winter Games contest, it was announced today. With support from the U.S. Olympic Committee, Johnson and Derryberry will go to the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, British Columbia, and will receive Microsoft Office 2010 to help them blog daily.

Johnson and Derryberry were two of the 10 contest semifinalists chosen by a panel of judges, including five-time Olympic gold medalist Bonnie Blair and online video stars Jake Hurwitz and Amir Blumenfeld from CollegeHumor.com. The public also voted for their favorite semifinalists online, and Johnson and Derryberry were selected based on the number of votes they received.

Both Johnson and Derryberry will take a 10-day trip to Vancouver, where they will work alongside Team USA to blog about the U.S. team using top-of-the-line technology including Microsoft Office 2010 Professional beta and the high-performance Acer Aspire 4810 laptop.

Microsoft Office 2010 is the premier productivity solution across PCs, mobile phones and Web browsers, and the Microsoft “blogathletes” will highlight this at the Games.

Johnson, a mother of two and a veteran writer, is originally from Canada and grew up in the Olympic city of Calgary.

“It’s exciting for me to see the Games in my homeland, and now I have a chance to share the inspiring ‘behind-the-scenes’ athlete stories I always wanted to tell,” Johnson said.

She’s looking forward to all of the events, but has a special interest in figure skating, and enjoys men’s hockey and skiing. In fact, her three-year-old son, Bode, is named after the two-time 2002 Winter Olympics alpine skiing legend Bode Miller.

Derryberry, a sophomore at Colorado Mountain College, is an active blogger for his school, where he chronicles his college experience and activities held across campus.

He aspires to become a high-school journalism teacher and is thrilled his trip to the Winter Games will give him the chance to experience his chosen career firsthand.

“I’m most excited about seeing the Games — it’s the Olympics, after all,” Derryberry said. “But blogging next to journalists from all over the world will give me the opportunity to see what it’s like to write about the events — while cheering on my country.”

Follow Johnson at http://www.crazybloggincanuck.com; follow Derryberry at http://cmc-glenwood-dylan.blogspot.com.

Source: Microsoft Corp.

Check out Dylan’s interview on the Dallas NBC affiliate.

Related links:

Microsoft

Amber Borowski Johnson’s blog

Dylan Derryberry’s blog