More than 126,000 online votes have been counted and two winning entries have been selected, including one from the Steinbach Junior High in the Create and Rate Challenge, the province’s school-based, anti-tobacco video contest. This announcement was made by Healthy Living, Seniors and Consumer Affairs Minister Jim Rondeau.
“Our goal was to give students a creative outlet to express their thoughts about smoking and making wise choices about tobacco use,” said Rondeau. “The first year of the contest has been a tremendous success, with 24 thought-provoking anti-tobacco videos submitted by Manitoba schools.”
Ten videos were selected as semifinalists by a judging panel. Those videos were then posted online and students across Manitoba were given one month to cast their votes for the best video in the middle-school and high-school categories.
Based on student vote totals, the winning videos:
• Birthday Cake by Steinbach Junior High in the middle-school category
• Think Twice by Kildonan-East Collegiate in the high-school category
The two winning schools will each receive an Apple iPad. Sony digital cameras will be presented to the eight semifinalists including Morris School (two entries), Collège Sturgeon Heights Collegiate, Centre scolaire Léo-Rémillard, Collège Béliveau (two entries), École Provencher and Gypsumville School.
The Create and Rate Challenge builds on existing initiatives to raise youth awareness of the dangers of smoking including the Review and Rate program, now in its ninth year and the Students Working Against Tobacco (SWAT) program, which has youth teams in 20 Manitoba schools taking a leadership role in preventing youth tobacco use.
The top 10 videos can be viewed online at www.mbcreaterate.ca.
Steps taken by the Manitoba government to encourage youth to quit smoking or avoid taking it up in the first place have contributed to cutting the smoking rate for Manitobans aged 15 to 19 nearly in half to 15 per cent in 2010 from 29 per cent in 1999, said Rondeau. Steps taken include:
• becoming the first province to implement a smoking ban in enclosed public places and indoor workplaces in 2004;
• implementing restrictions on the display, advertising and promotion of tobacco products in 2005; and
• banning smoking in a private vehicle with anyone under the age of 16.
