Protect Me With 3+ contest now open for NJ students to raise vaccine awareness

Contest encourages students to create, educate, vaccinate to protect NJ communities

NEWARK, NJ (Dec. 4, 2023) – Calling all New Jersey middle and high school students! This year’s Protect Me With 3+ vaccine awareness contest is now open for poster and video submissions through Feb. 16, 2024.

To stimulate creativity through health education, this year’s Create. Educate. Vaccinate. contest seeks to motivate students to create posters and videos illustrating the importance of vaccination to achieve the highest level of community protection. The goal is harnessing the power of students’ creativity to raise awareness of the importance of vaccines in protecting New Jerseyans’ health and encourage more students and teachers to participate statewide.

The Protect Me With 3+ contest is a collaboration between the Partnership for Maternal and Child Health of Northern New Jersey (Partnership) and the New Jersey Department of Health (DOH).

“Through vaccine awareness, this year’s contest aims to inspire adolescents with an engaging and interactive approach to community health,” said Mariekarl Vilceus-Talty, MA, BSN, President & CEO of the Partnership. “Participation is vital to start the conversation about being healthy in their community and while with peers during the school day.”

Students in grades 5–12 are encouraged to design an 8.5×11 poster (by hand or digitally) or create a :30 second video for an opportunity to win a $50-175 gift card. Artwork must feature educational information about one of the following vaccines: COVID-19; Flu; Human Papillomavirus (HPV); Meningococcal ACWY (Men-ACWY); and Tetanus, Diphtheria, Pertussis (Tdap).

Vaccines play a vital role in keeping New Jersey communities healthy. They are the safest and most effective tools to help prevent serious symptoms and complications caused by many common infectious illnesses. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends vaccinations from birth through adulthood to provide a lifetime of protection against many diseases and infections.

“Educating the younger generation is crucial for vaccine awareness. Doing so in a contest such as PMW3+ drives creativity and inspires youth to care about their own and their community’s health,” said Dr. Christina Tan, DOH Assistant Commissioner and State Epidemiologist. “Young people are still at risk for vaccine-preventable diseases. Engaging them in a contest informs them about the risks of these diseases and the benefits of simple prevention measures like vaccines.”

Digital entries can be submitted here: protectmewith3.com/enter. Hand-drawn posters can be mailed to:

The Partnership for Maternal and Child Health of Northern New Jersey
50 Park Place
Suite 700
Newark, NJ 07102

Three teachers whose classes submit the most submissions will win $75 each. Submissions entered before Jan. 12, 2024, will be eligible for an early bird prize of $20. Three early bird winners will be randomly selected.

Finalists will be selected in March 2024, and an award celebration will be held in May to honor winners and participants.

Details, past winners, and more information are available at protectmewith3.com.