When Canadian Tire Corporation and its family of companies, including FGL Sports , Sports Experts and Hockey Experts put the call out to employees last fall to send in
video submissions showing their skills as potential reporters to cover the
Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, Chomedey’s very own Michelle Pellerin put her thinking cap on.
Pellerin, who serves as the marketing coordinator
for Hockey Experts, had a connection to Quebec Olympian in cross country skiing
Alex Harvey. Using these contacts
she reached him and arranged for a skype video interview. “It was 15 minutes,
he was very sweet and I sent it in,” she told me last week. “In October the
president of our branch came into the office and made the announcement that I
was the winner for Quebec. I completely freaked out. I still can’t quite
believe it.”
The selection committee was impressed with her
creativity, personality, bilingualism and knowledge of sports. Pellerin
is, in fact, an avid skier and a big fan
of alpine ski racer Erik Guay. She
boards her plane for Sochi today and will spend a week with three colleagues: two from Toronto and one from Calgary. The
employees will create unique content for Canadian Tire and Sports Experts’
social media platforms and an employee website, as well as capture photos and
videos of their unique Olympic moments. She will have the opportunity to attend
different sporting events and interview Canadian athletes, coaches and fans
while experiencing Russian culture first hand. She will have access to Canada
House, where she will be able to mingle with athletes and their families in a
casual and relaxed environment.
“I had a test run in Ottawa recently when I attended
the announcement for the flag bearer,” Pellerin says. “I interviewed Hailey Wickenheiser, Joannie Rochette
and Jean-Luc Brassard.”
After
graduating from both the Université du Québec à Montréal and the UniversitéPanthéon Assas (Paris II), Pellerin went straight to work in the tourism
industry, with her last job in commercial marketing for Air France. Following
her time there, she joined the FGL Sports family. She focuses her
attention on a multitude of projects,
from social media content for the national brand, in-store visual materials to
coordinating online campaigns with a number of key suppliers
.