Health unit chooses Break the Vape Challenge winners

Windsor-Essex students have come through in a big way to encourage each other not to vape.

Earlier this year, the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit launched the Break the Vape Challenge PSA contest, where students in grades six to 12 were encouraged to produce a video that raised awareness about vaping and its dangers. 

The health unit revealed the winners on Friday.

In the grade six-to-eight category, the winners were as follows, according to rank.

• Echappe le vape, from École élémentaire catholique Saint-Edmond.

• Escape the Vape, from St. John the Baptist Catholic Elementary School

• Stop the Peer Pressure, St. John the Baptist Catholic Elementary School

The videos All Net, Don’t Regret, and It’s not me it’s you, were chosen as runner-up videos.

École élémentaire catholique Saint-Edmond won the award for the highest percentage of participating students in this category.

The winners for the grade nine-to-12 category are as follows, in ranked order.

• Break the Vape for Mental and Physical Health, from St. Thomas of Villanova Catholic Secondary School

• Anti-Vape PSA, from Catholic Central High School

• I was told it was trendy…, from Assumption College Catholic High School

The videos Message de Maya, and Frappe la vappe, were chosen as runner-ups.

Ecole secondaire catholique EJ Lajeunesse won the highest-percentage participation award for this category.

Over 100 videos were submitted from 27 schools across Windsor-Essex. The health unit worked with youth judges to narrow the submissions down through three rounds of voting. Then, a round of public voting determined the first, second, and third-place winners in each category.

The health unit reported over 2,700 votes being recorded.