Surrey students say ‘no’ to vaping with poster awareness campaign
Surrey Schools students of all ages are pushing back against vaping in schools with a new poster campaign highlighting the dangers of vaping products.
As part of the Youth Against Vaping initiative, students created posters raising awareness about the harms of vaping. The competition was held in partnership with Fraser Health's Healthy School's Program and was open to elementary and secondary students.
With 26 submissions received from participants in Grades 4-12, the following winners were selected:
Elementary:
- Sanvi Bansal - Frost Road Elementary
- Leo Meng - Rosemary Heights Elementary
- Johanna Mathew – Senator Reid Elementary
Secondary:
- Aryan Sachdeva – Tamanawis Secondary
- Jasneet Dhillon – Queen Elizabeth Secondary
- Arneet Kaur – Frank Hurt Secondary
“We were blown away by the enthusiasm and thoughtfulness put into this year’s entries,” said Dakota Grange, acting assistant manager of the district’s Safe Schools department. “We wanted to have a youth-led initiative to have students open those important conversations with each other.
The winning posters will be shared with schools, with plans to hold another contest next year to generate a new batch of posters.
“The hope is that by having these posters in hallways and on monitors throughout our schools, students will think twice before putting their health in jeopardy,” said Grange.
In addition to the Youth Against Vaping initiative, she said Safe Schools is also working with community partners to seek more restrictions on vaping products, such as the removal of flavours and a geographic restriction on how close a vape shop can be to schools.
All students who participated in this year’s poster contest were given Tim Hortons gift cards and the three winners in each category also received movie passes.
For more information and resources on talking to youth about vaping, click here.
