Students Invited To Participate In County's Vaccine PSA Contest

SILVER SPRING, MD — With the expansion of vaccine eligibility for those 12 and up, Montgomery County is enlisting the help of children to encourage their peers to get the COVID-19 shot.

"Take Your Shot" — a video PSA contest designed to address vaccine hesitancy among younger residents — asks middle and high school students to produce a 30- to 45-second clip that explores one of the following themes:

• Why should everyone get the COVID-19 vaccine?
• What makes you want to get vaccinated?
• When people, like us, get vaccinated, we can…

Judges will select up to 25 videos, in both English and Spanish, and publish them on the county's social media channels. Three high school students and three middle school students will be awarded prizes in the early summer.

"With vaccination rates starting to fall and the demand for appointments tapering off, the county has begun focusing its vaccine communication efforts on younger residents," said County Executive Marc Elrich. "Peer-to-peer communication is crucial and young people know better than we do how to be persuasive with one another. We believe students will hear and respond better to messages created by fellow students."

The deadline for submissions is Friday, June 4. Contest rules and entry forms are posted on the county's Volunteer Center website.

For more information, email Lynn Cook at lynn.cook@montgomerycountymd.gov.