Claire Jungmann, a sixth-grade student at the Doherty Middle School won top honors in the 2012 Anti-Tobacco Poster Contest, an annual educational event to alert schoolchildren to the dangers of tobacco and smoking sponsored by the Massachusetts Medical Society and its Alliance.
Jungmann, whose entry was titled "Smoking takes the color out of life," was one of just 12 winners selected from more than 3,700 entries to the competition, according to the state. The contest is open to youngsters in grades 1-6 throughout Massachusetts.
The competition asks students to create an original poster that ties in with certain themes for their grade. The themes by grades are: Grades 1 and 2: Show how tobacco is bad for your body; Grades 3 and 4: Show how using tobacco affects other people; Grades 5 and 6: Why I won't start. Four entries are selected in each category, and the winning entries are chosen on the basis of originality, artistic merit, and relevance to the theme for the grades.
Winners were honored at a special event at the Massachusetts State House in Boston, where they received a certificate from the Medical Society and a gift card for books as prizes. Winning entries will also be included in a 2013 calendar produced by the Medical Society that will be distributed to schools, pediatricians, and family physicians across the Commonwealth. Presenting the awards were Richard Aghababian, M.D., president of the Massachusetts Medical Society; Alan Ashare, M.D., chairman of the Medical Society's Committee on Student Health and Sports Medicine; and Gladys Chan, president of the MMS Alliance.
This year marked the 17th year that the Massachusetts Medical Society has conducted the contest. To view all 12 winning entries, visit massmed.org/tobacco
Founded in 1781, MMS is the oldest continuously operating medical society in the country. The MMS Alliance is the organization of physicians' spouses committed to promoting good health among the citizens of Massachusetts.
