Talking
to Wendy Fontaine is like having a conversation with your best friend -- you
feel like you have known her for years and the conversation flows freely.
Only 27 years old, Fontaine has worked as a reporter for the Newport Daily
News since 1999. When she started at the paper, she covered the education
beat for Portsmouth, which has evolved into covering three Rhode Island towns.
Wendy Fontaine was born in 1974 in Livermore Falls, Maine, population 1,000.
Her parents, Ronnie and Gail Churchill, both made a meager living working
in a local factory. Seeing her parents work so hard at jobs they hated, Fontaine
says she decided at a young age that she never wanted to have a miserable
career. The career that she decided would make her happy was becoming a reporter.
It probably doesn't come as much of a surprise to her childhood friends that
that was the career path she was going to take. "I used to play the 'Wendy
Show' at the Sears department store, Fontaine explained. "I would use
the security cameras as my television camera and interview my friends. We
always ended up getting kicked out, though."
In order to make this dream of becoming a reporter come true, Fontaine attended
the University of Maine. In 1996, she graduated with a degree in journalism
and a minor in sociology. Soon after graduating, she met her husband, who
was stationed in Maine with the U.S. Coast Guard. Only six months after they
met, they were married; they have been together for five years now.
When her husband's job required him to move to Middletown, Rhode Island, Fontaine,
only 22 at the time, moved right along with him. For the first six months,
she worked as a temporary employee in different offices in Newport, the whole
time looking for a more permanent position. When a neighbor told her of an
advertisement in the Newport Daily News for an internship, Fontaine
decided to respond. She got the job, and from 1997-1998, she covered general
assignments for the paper.
It was during this time that Fontaine was greatly impacted by one of her bosses.
She said the then-city editor, Mary Harrington, taught her everything that
she knows. "Mary set the standards for myself," she says. "Especially
now, considering the events of the past few months."
From there, she worked for the Westerly Sun for a year before moving
to her current position with the Daily News. Perhaps accustomed to
the small-town setting from her childhood, Fontaine really enjoys the close-knit
atmosphere of her paper. She considers herself lucky because she is given
a great deal of freedom to write stories that are of interest to her.
While her beat is education, what she enjoys most is doing profiles of interesting
people. "I have a great job," she says. "I get paid to talk
to real, everyday people. The people and the realness, that is what makes
it interesting." Even though Fontaine enjoys reporting, she has aspirations
of one day becoming an editor.
Once again citing the influence of Harrington on her life, she would like
to give out ideas because she thinks she is sometimes able to see things better.
Being an editor would also allow her to teach others. This desire to teach
other reporters is currently being met by acting as a writing coach at the
Good 5-Cent Cigar, the school newspaper at the University of Rhode
Island.
Judging from the awards that she has already won in her short career, she
is a good candidate for teaching others how to perfect their writing. She
won two first-place feature-writing awards from the Rhode Island Press Association
in 2000, a second-place award for feature-writing in 2001 and a third-place
award for feature-writing in 1999. In addition, she was the recipient of the
2001 Ann Franklin Award for Newsroom Excellence at the Daily News.
Although reporting consumes most of her time, Fontaine said she also enjoys
reading and skiing. She began taking yoga classes in September. In addition,
she would eventually like to have children.
If Fontaine's plate doesn't already seem full, it is bound to be overflowing
in the future. "There is no off-time when you are a reporter," she
said. "A story can come at any time." While she isn't sure where
she will be in the coming years, she is sure to be happy as long as she continues
to do what she loves, and that love seems to lie in reporting.
A successful reporter, according to Fontaine, should "do every story
justice." At only 27, Wendy Fontaine seems to have success in the palm
of her hand.
Read a story by Wendy Fontaine