Charlotte Latin teacher Craig Estep submitted a video to enter the Wanna Be Jack Hanna contest. Estep was named the winner of the national contest this week and will travel to South Africa this in the summer.
Charlotte Latin teacher wins national Jack Hanna contest
This holiday season, Craig Estep won’t be dreaming of a white Christmas.
No, it doesn’t snow much in South Africa, where he will be going next summer as the winner of the first Wanna Be Jack Hanna contest.
After receiving approximately 6,000 votes, Estep, 49, was ecstatic to find out Dec. 14 that he had won the first, nationwide contest.
“I was blown away,” he said.
A music teacher at Charlotte Latin, Estep has been dreaming of going to South Africa for his 50th birthday for as long as he can remember, but with his family and friends not really wanting to make the journey with him, he had all but given up hope of realizing his dream.
Then, in October, his luck changed when he saw Jack Hanna on Good Morning America announcing the contest that would send one lucky winner to South Africa for six weeks.
Estep, who boasts a career as a professional opera singer, credits Charlotte Latin students as one of the driving forces behind his win.
“The entire school was voting daily,” he said. “They would begin computer classes by voting.”
Eagerly waking up on the morning of the results, Estep spent all morning checking Jack Hanna’s Facebook page, where officials with the Columbus (Ohio) Zoo and Aquarium were supposed to announce the winner by noon.
As noon approached, Estep got nervous. “I was pacing back and forth here at (Charlotte Latin,)” he said.
Finally, shortly after noon, his phone rang. Expecting someone from the zoo, he was disappointed to hear the voice of friend Jeff Powell, who had assisted him in making his video entry for the contest. Trying to quickly get off the phone, Powell got Estep’s attention when he told him to go to the Columbus Zoo’s Web page.
The Matthews resident was in for a surprise when the page loaded, announcing him as the winner of the contest.
“I just went berserk,” Estep said. “It was an incredible moment. It was very surreal.”
News of Estep’s win spread like wildfire across the Charlotte Latin campus, and within minutes, Estep could hear classrooms erupt with cheers and screams.
“I heard people scream halfway across campus,” he laughed.
As the winner of the contest, Estep will travel to South Africa from July 4 to Aug. 14, where he’ll celebrate his 50th birthday on Aug. 5 exactly the way he had always dreamed. As part of the trip, he will study at the Mantis Field Guide Academy.
Estep “will have a once-in-a-life opportunity to learn what it takes to lead safaris in Africa,” Erin Sites, spokeswoman for the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, said. “This means everything from tracking animals in the wild to leading fine wine tastings.”
Estep looks forward to everything.
Having frequented many zoos and animal reserves, Estep is no stranger to animals, but he is looking forward to seeing a breed he has never seen before.
“I’ve never seen an African wild dog, and I think it would be a really neat experience to see them,” he said. “I feel like my soul is in Africa. I just want to learn as much as I can.”
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