His Excelency, Mr. Peter Smith, Governor Cayman Islands 
congratulating Stefan 
McLaughlin, who won first 
place in the Youth Art Competition.

A member of the Bodden Town Adventist Church, Stephan McLaughlin returned from Sydney, Australia, recently and said his Olympic experience was something he will always remember.

 During his week in Sydney, Stephan was invited to three Olympic events, men’s gymnastics, men’s basketball and women’s beach volleyball.

 He also had a special tour of the Sydney, Taronga Zoo, and the Sydney Aquarium.

 Earlier this year, over 400,000 young people from 23 counties had been challenged by Visa Olympics of the Imagination (VOI) to use their imagination to create an original piece of art that represented what the Olympic motto of “Citius, Altius, Fortius” (Faster, Higher, Stronger) meant to them.  Stephan competed against 120 local students in VOI youth art competition.

 The eleven-year old won with his drawing The Boomerang, which went on display in Sydney, Australia at Visa’s Olympics of the Imagination Exhibit.

 Visa printed postcards of the winning paintings, including Stephan’s “The Boomerang, which can be viewed at Visa’s website (www.visa.com/visadids/).

 As Cayman’s winner, Cayman National Bank and Visa International awarded Stephan a trip to the Sydney 2000 games to compete in an International Art Competion with 32 other winners.

 According to Stephan, the highlight of his week in Australia was when each VOI winner met IOC president Mr. Juan Antonio Samaranch, Olympians Prince Albert of Monaco, Nadia Comanecia and Bart Conner, and VOI’s special Ambassador and renowned Australian artist Ken Done.

 On Friday, 15^th September, Mr. Done and Visa International announced that “Racing with Dolphins” by Sun-ik Kim from Korea was the Grand Prize winner of the International competition.